Lwala Village

Well, since I essentially lived in a village with no electricity all week, I couldn't quite blog as often as I had planned. So here's the summary with some pictures:

Our time in Lwala village was amazing. Milton has an amazing family that has taken us in like their own children. I can't remember sleeping better than I did my first night in Lwala. I woke up to a cool breeze through the window, a rooster calling its morning cock-a-doodle-do, and voices of the women cooking and laughing together. I laid underneath my mosquito net and soaked in the serenity of it all.

Here's a picture of me and Milton on our way to meet the District Minister of Health. The MoH is the only doctor within the district. In fact, there are only 500 doctors in the entire country of Kenya. Most Kenyan doctors leave the country. For good reason, I suppose. This picture is us on the road out of Lwala and our cab ran out of gas. So he ran (literally) with a carton to go get it filled. We were so late for the meeting, especially because we got pulled over by the cops and had to get out of the cab because the car wasn't insured.



One morning, Milton actually got a really bad migraine and a bit of malaria. We had to take him to the "clinic" which wasn't exactly anything we're accustomed to. While he recovered, I joined the women in his village to help them with the daily in's and out's of Kenyan village life.

I shoveled manure and carried it back and forth across the fields.



I washed everyone's clothes. Bottoms up!



And then Milton's cousin, Martin, wanted me to plant a tree in my name around his soon-to-be homestead. So there's us with the Pango Osazi tree (which means "plan your family") and he named it the Jena Tree.



Here's the clinic that Milton and his brothers have been working so diligently on. It's going to be an amazing blessing to thousands of people in this area. The roads are terrible and there is no way anyone could get medical assistance if they really needed it. This is going to save so many lives. Here's Iain and Barry filming Milton's brother, Omondi, outside of the clinic. Blood:Water Mission is providing the water for the clinic. It will be the only well within the entire area - again, for thousands of people.



Oh, here's Barry's first experience taking a bucket shower :)



One of the things we did out here was get footage of African children to put a video together for Vacation Bible Schools in the US to teach American children about African children. We had the privilege of following three siblings (Milton's cousins) Harrison, Apiyo, and Tobias. This is from the day we followed Apiyo and Tobi's day at Lwala Primary School.



The biggest challenge that came to me on our time in Lwala was the never-ending requests for assistance with school fees. You see, in Kenya, high school is not free. And most kids cannot afford to go to school. It's terrible because education is a child's best chance of being able to overcome poverty and injustice. I'm convinced that education is the key to equipping the youth for a better chance for a future. It absolutely breaks my heart that these eager, dedicated students are not being able to continue on. So here's a picture of (left to right) Calvin, Dennis and Susan (and their cousin Maggie).



Calvin is an orphan. His parents passed away when he was about 8 years old. He's living with his very old grandmother. He has been attending 8th grade for 3 years now because he can't pay the school fees to go to 9th grade, but he loves studying. He's one of the smartest kids in the area. His test scores are unbelievable, and he's stuck studying the same subjects over and over again. $400 would put him in a boarding school for boys. It would give him one of the best educations in western Kenya, feed him, house him and build him. Milton asked me if there was anything I could do. We went and spoke with the headmaster of Kanywanga High School. He said he had room for Calvin. The next morning, we stopped Calvin on his way to 8th grade and told him to come home and fill out some papers because he's going to high school. $400 was all it required. I've never seen joy on someone's face greater than I did with Calvin when he found out he was going to school. We spent the next day getting him uniforms, shoes, bedding, pencils, etc. Calvin starts school today. I believe in him so much. Here's another picture of Calvin (with his new shoes for school).



Next to Calvin is Dennis, who I wrote about in December. He's at Kanyawanga High School. I had some people help me cover his school fees in December. He's doing so well. Thanks to those who are continuing to support his time at school. He is so thankful. Both Dennis and Calvin plan to be doctors like Milton. I visited Dennis at his school here. I keep thinking, "I can't believe $400 a year is all it takes to help him."



And then there's Susan. One of the brightest, boldest young Kenyans I have ever met. One evening, the three of them were all studying together and she took the night to teach me different formulas in algebra. What a bright girl. And Friday was her last day of school because she ran out of school fee money for the rest of the term. It's ridiculous that these children, who actually WANT to go to school, cannot. Our hearts just got wrecked as we continued to meet these amazing kids with so much hope and no way to live it out. Barry paid her fees to get her back in school today. She's covered until May, but she still has another year that is unaccounted for.

I spent a lot of time this week in Lwala talking with various members of the village, just trying to get a better sense of everything in regards to AIDS, poverty, water, etc. It's such a complicated thing - to try to unpack all the reasons why life is so hard. And then to try to find the ways that we can come alongside and support one another through the struggle. I did a lot of praying and reflecting this week. I come home with few answers, but a deeper understanding of the complexity of this world. I'm thankful to Milton's family, for the opportunity to build relationships with one another, to learn from each other, and to continue to search ways that I and Blood:Water can be a blessing to them.

Jena