Wednesday 28 August 2013

Sabbatical Days 31-35 (24-28 August)

Sabbatical Days 31-35 (24-28 August)
I'm including all these days in the one post which is intended to be the final one.
The days have included
  • returning books used in the composition of my talks to the Gamble Library, Union Theological College
  • meeting with Uel Marrs, Board of Mission Overseas, to share my experiences with him
  • reflection and completion of my report from the Ministerial Development Scheme which enabled the Sabbatical to happen
  • consideration of how some of the work I have seen in both Uganda and Kenya might be helped from this end
  • consideration of how to communicate and apply some of my experiences to my congregation.
Let me say once again how much I have appreciated your prayers,..

So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish

Jim

(If you don't 'get' the last line try looking it up on Wikipedia)

Saturday 24 August 2013

Sabbatical Day 30 (23 August)

Sabbatical Day 30 (23 August)
First full day back. No point trying to do too much today. Mind and body still recovering from the accumulated journeys of three weeks. The experiences of those three weeks will need to distill before I can write my report.
Lots of correspondence to open and emails to catch up on anyway.
Thanks again to all for your prayers.
Jim

Friday 23 August 2013

Sabbatical Days 28 & 29 (21 & 22 August)



Sabbatical Day 28 (21 August)
Last day in Africa. Don’t lie long but 8.15 is a lot more civilised than 3.30 as a time to get up. Final packing – I’d been able to leave some stuff with the Leremores that I didn’t need in Tuum. Even though I’m taking back less stuff the suitcase feels fuller. As the baggage allowance is 40kg there shouldn’t be a problem. The suitcase was blue when I started but at the moment is a reddish blue with all the dust it’s picked up in the back of the matatus. Gabriel the Taxi driver arrives at 12 noon on the button to pick me up and we get through Nairobi’s notorious traffic jams to arrive at the airport in good time. Because of the recent fire the departures hall is a large marquee with a small food & drink stand and duty free area. There are no departure gates, you’re just called to the front of the tent when it’s time for your flight to board. 
A flight to Cairo by Egyptian Airlines was cancelled and some people were very irate, shouting at the Airport staff. A bit unfair on them as they have nothing to do with Egyptian Air and can’t do anything about it.
I spend my remaining Kenyan shillings on some food (in fact I’m 45/- short) but they let me away with it. My 16.40 flight to Dubai is called at 15.45, and it’s a short walk across the tarmac to the plane. Pleasant flight to Dubai. Dubai airport has WiFi but it doesn’t connect you to the internet – or at least I can’t find how. So phonecall home rather than Skype. I’ve discovefred some seats designed for sleeping in, so won’t try the floor this time. 8 hour overnight between flights so a few hours sleep will be good.

Jim

Sabbatical Day 29 (22 August)
Flight to Dublin at 7.25am and all went smoothly. Into Dublin a little early but then a long queue to get through Passport Control. Bus to Belfast getting in at 3.30pm. Met by Lynda (hooray) and then driven home. Unpack, long bath and relax rest of the day.

Jim

Sabbatical Day 27 (20 August)



Sabbatical Day 27 (20 August)
Dan’s the Man!
Up at 3.30am, beating the dawn chorus. The flight option didn’t work out. It was never very likely and depended on getting too many ‘ducks in a row’. Mission Aviation Fellowship’ haven’t used Tuum airstrip for some time and were wary of it, and other things didn’t fall into place either, so we left at 4.15 with Stephen driving, me in the front passenger seat and Dan in the next row. I had cause to be grateful that Dan was with me, and not just in the sense of having company and someone who knows the ropes of matatu travel on the way to Nairobi, as you shall see later. As we were about to leave, 5 people appeared out of the darkness looking for a trip to Maralal. This is standard procedure – Stephen can’t drive anywhere away from Tuum without someone looking for a lift.
The drive to Maralal was uneventful enough. We stopped at one point to admire a beautiful view. 
It had been raining on much of the route, so the roads were slippery in parts. This is what the road from Nyahururu would have been like on ‘The Day that Time Forgot’ except it was actively raining and was dark.



We got to Maralal for 9.15am which was excellent timing. A matatu was loading up and we booked a couple of seats. What happens is they take your phone number and will ring you when they have the full complement and are about to leave. Now we made our FATAL ERROR. Stephen said we would have time for a cup of tea so we went to the Hard Rock Café (no, not the type you are thinking about, this is it!)


 
And for all you Man U fans I thought you would like this, just across the street (look at the sign on the left of the brown coloured shop)
As the tea as served Dan’s phone went. Matatu full. Come now! Someone who shall be nameless but was not called Dan or Jim said we had time to drink our tea. Phone went a couple more times. When we turned up at the matatu we were bumped off because we were late coming and two other people took our seats. It left at 9.40. So we got into the next one at least getting our pick of the seats. It filled up slowly. It was a bit disconcerting when they raised it up on a jack (with us in it) and banged away at something on the offside rear. Time went by as it has a habit of doing in Africa (God seems to have created more time in Africa than he has at home). One man is put on in the back seat in a sorry looking state by someone else. He doesn’t want to go and keeps trying to get out, becoming slightly violent. He escapes! They pick him up bolidy and put in back in through the emergency rear window! Still slowly the matatu fills up and we leave at 11.30am.
There is space for the driver plus 14 passengers. They have managed to squeeze on driver plus 17 adults and one child (about 4). That plus luggage is far more than the minibus was designed for, never mind probably licensed to carry and I’m a bit concerned. (This is a contrast with Uganda. I was never on a minibus that had more than 14 fare-paying passengers plus driver – although there was always an extra man to operate the sliding door and take money. On any lengthy journey we were always stopped at least once by a traffic police officer, very smartly dressed in a white uniform, with a polite request for the driver’s permit and a look at the insurance certificate, and a quick look at the passengers. This never happened on my journeys in Kenya.) A verse from Scripture came into my mind: Some trust in chariots, and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the Lord our God. (Psalm 20.7) I certainly didn’t trust this ‘chariot’ and offered up a quiet prayer.
I didn’t recognise the road as we set out from Maralal to Nyahururu, but then as it was daylight and the last time had been in the dark, that didn’t surprise me. Stephen (who stayed until the matatu departed and then went back to Tuum) had said also that it might take a different route. We got to a point where the road was being graded and this made progress very slow. I should say at this point that you need great skill and concentration as a driver on these roads. Compacted earth is laid on top of whatever sub-stratum is there – could be rock, clay, soil. This earth is graded, basically scraped level with a large machine. And that makes a good surface for a while but then the combination of traffic, rain, water follow, weak spots in the sub-stratum and so on produces pot-holes, bumps, fissures, and what look sometimes like ravines! Grading takes place at best once a year and even then sometimes makes things worse by scraping off all the compacted earth. All this means that the road becomes impassable at points. What happens then is that the traffic by-passes the impassable bit and goes round it for 50 or 100m or however long it takes. This makes a new track, but it then can become impassable so the by-pass is by-passed! Anyway, the grading work was churning up the earth so much and making progress so slow that the driver turned off the ‘main’ road onto a smaller one, I assume as a detour. We got to a point where the surface was so bad that there was a by-pass of a by-pass of a by-pass of the original road. And there we all had to get out to lighten the load for the minibus to get through. And even then some of the men had to push. All back in and on a bit further. There is an ominous noise from the off-side rear. We all get out, and the matatu is jacked up. The springs have gone at that point! I knew it! And I looked at the back of the matatu, and just below the rear window it was written: In God we trust. This is where I was doubly glad Dan was with us. You may remember he is a skilled mechanic who had been staying in Tuum, reparing the vehicles there. He knew what to do, binding up the springs with rope to make a temporary fix to get us under way. 

So after half an hour we are on our way again. The driver drives with a bit more caution now, and we come to a very narrow part of the road where the ditch on either side is very deep. Just a few inches error would mean the bus would overturn as we tumble into the ditch. I have an off-side window seat and can see into the ditch. More than once I thought we were so close we must fall in but we avoided that catastrophe. By the way the seat belt was broken. I feel that we are still driving too fast over some of the rough bits and sure enough the same noise from the back. We have no more rope, but are near a settlement and someone goes for rope. I triply bless Dan who gets us going again. We seem to take forever getting into Nyahururu as we drop first this person off at his village than that person off at that one. Then we are back on tarred road (Dan says springs will hold now) and finally into Nyahururu just before 7pm.
The next leg of the journey is the shuttle matatu to Nairobi. We are out of one matatu and into the other and away within 10 minutes. Fare is 400/- (£3.08 for a 3 hour journey, from Maralal to Nyhururu was 600/- - £4.62 – how do they make any money?). Although the journey is all on tarred road, it is still very jarring and when I get to Nairobi and get out I feel like I’m in one of those Tom and Jerry cartoons where Tom is working a pneumatic drill and the drill is taken away and he continues to vibrate as if it’s still there. Three hours from Nyahururu to Naorobi. Stephen has given Dan the phone number of the Taxi company to ring for me to me taken to the Leremores (but that’s not what he thought!). I had noticed that Dan had got quite cross with the first matatu driver at one point when he seemed to me making no effort to make up time. I realise why when Dan advises me at about 8 to ring my airline and cancel my flight while it can still be cancelled. He thought my flight was this evening when in fact it’s tomorrow evening! He’s somewhat relieved to learn the reality. Poor man, he must have been panicing all the way since Maralal.
I phone Naomi as we get near Nairobi to get her address for the Taxi. Shortly afterwards Thomas rings. However, with his accent and the noise in the matatu (radio full blast as it was all the way from Maralal) I can’t make him out except that he (whoever he is) will pick me up at a particular bus stop. He asks to speak to Dan and I assume they are confirming the arrangement.
We get to the particular bus stop and I get off. Then confusion! A Taxi driver wants to take me but I tell him I am being picked up. Another man steps forward and introduces himself as John. I assume I have got it wrong and it wasn’t Thomas on the phone, but to be sure I ask him, Are you the one who is to pick me up and spoke on the phone? He says he is and Dan confirms it (Dan has never met Thomas so wouldn’t know him anyway). It’s a Taxi and I get in. I take the opportunity to phone Lynda and while I do another call comes in. It’s Thomas and I can hear him clearly. He says he is on his way and will pick me up soon! So ‘John’ was not the one! However, the journey to the Leremores in short and John knows the way so I am there quite quickly. Thomas arrives while the Taxi still there. The fare is 600/-. I offer 1,000/-. The driver says he has no change. Really? I might be tired but I’m not stupid and while the 400/- change is only £3.08 there’s enough Scots blood in my not to let him away with that trick. Thomas has some change so ‘John’ gets 600 and no tip (that’ll teach him).
So with Leremores before 11. Over 19 hours on the go. A cup of hot chocolate and some toast (first toast in over a week!) and into bed. Good sleep.

Jim

Sabbatical Day 26 (19 August)



Sabbatical Day 26 (19 August)
I sleep in! Woke early to the usual dawn chorus of cock competing as to who can crow the loudest to welcome the dawn, followed by the chirruping of other birds growing increasingly louder, then at 6 the drums marking the children beginning their morning devotions, and the occasional braying of donkeys. But I must have been fast asleep when my watch alarm went off at 7 and missed it and when I next looked at the watch it was just after 8. As I arrived for breakfast at 8.14 Stephen said he was giving it till 8.15 before he came to look for me.
Madam Melissa Matu, the Secondary School Principal drops in to talk over some things with Stephen. She doesn’t see that keen when Stephen suggests I might call with her later in the morning for her to show me round the school. We’ll see. A quick call to Lynda on the satellite phone before she goes to work and then I think about what to say at tonight’s meeting. Then write up the blog.
Take some photographs for a presentation on the Youth Camps Kasoni has to make sometime then go down to see the Principal. In fact she is keen to talk. She and Stephen are in the same league when it comes to talking and both have a very determined personalities.
We talk in the Principal’s House in the company of her children, Patience and Lemwel.

The house is very sparsely furnished. Melissa has a very clear Christian commitment and feels called to be in Tuum and bring the school up to where it should be. What follows in italics is what Melissa told me, again filtered through my brain!).
The school was built by PCEA with help from PCI including Stephen and has some of the best plant in Kenya. It was handed over to the Government who appoint and pay the teachers and the church has the status of a sponsor. There are many challenges. External ones include:
·         Competition from other schools which receive greater funding
·         Poor state funding due to low numbers
·         A poor reputation outside
·         A weak and divided Board of Governors and a lack of people of community standing on the board (a neighbouring school has a Provincial Deputy Governor on it and another an MP)
Internal ones include:
·         Damage to the plant
·         An infestation of snakes
·         Much of the grounds reverted to bush
·         A demoralised and apathetic staff
·         Theft by staff members
·         Ill-disciplined children
·         No school transport
·         A disconnected generator and several solar-powered batteries not working
·         Most of the girls don’t pay fees and some of those who were meant to didn’t and had to be sent home
In her first year she has been able to have much of the damage repaired, clear the bush, clamp down on theft, restore discipline. At one point the snakes went virtually overnight – she sees this as an answer to prayer. Although the challenges she faces are formidable she is not despondent. She has a vision for what can be done in the 4 years remaining here, and says that her faith is vital. She could not carry on without God.
She is in a process of replacing the teaching staff. Some of them actively hate the school, and she believes that when she has teachers who want to be there and who are not part of the previous set-up that things will improve. None of the teachers are local and any new ones won’t be either. This means they have to lodge in town. She hopes she can get accommodation built for the teachers on site. Females will get first call. At the moment of the 9 teachers only 2 are female (not counting her).
She has no school secretary or bursar as there is no one living locally who can do this work, she she has to do it herself.
What help could be given by PCI?
·         Books
·         Transport – a school bus is badly needed. On reason the school closed late was that it couldn’t close until the girls could get transport home. With no public transport and some of the journeys like that which C took, it takes a long time to do. In addition the teachers have to be taken home and they live far away, one near Mombasa on the coast. A school bus would also help increase the enrolment. [Comment – she talks about a 51 or 62 seater. I don’t know how this would work in Tuum – one journey would shake it to pieces unless there are buses built like tanks. I would have thought maybe 3 sturdy minibuses would be better and that would mean if one was off the road things didn’t grind to a halt. But after 1 week here who am I to give an opinion? Maybe there are buses built like tanks. Anybody know?]
·         Money to help clear a massive debt (approaching 1,000,000/-) left by the previous administration.
Our conversation lasts most of the afternoon and I assure her that I’ll give some thought to how we might help, without any promises. The following are some photographs taken round the school.
Principal’s Office
Laboratory
Dormitory (45 beds)
Washblock for dormitory
Laboratory, classrooms and admin buildings from dormitories
 Dining Hall – that’s as furnished as it gets
Kitchen
Banana trees. These trees are only 1 year old. You can see a flower coming on the left hand side of the left-most one. If you look at the lower leaves there is one pointing directly upwards. The flower is near the top left of this leaf. These are in the ‘Shamba’ which is where they grow a lot of the food that is used in the school.
Last evening of the Junior Youth Camp. Part of the Revival Meeting includes a time of open prayer. This is enthusiastically taken up, including by the children. While some weren’t interested, most were engaged. There was that lovely sound you only get in a large prayer meeting as many people pray at once and you can’t make out anywords, just a sound. I’ve never been at a meeting at home where children pray unled like that. Beautiful. An earlier part of the meeting had included a film of Solomon and his wisdom over the disputed baby. It takes a lot of ingenuity to get a video projector and sound working in these circumstances!
I speak more on Peter, re-capping on what I said on Saturday morning. Some show that they have been listening by answering my questions correctly. I take it on from where in Matthew Peter confesses Jesus as the Christ and thereby becomes a Christian, but we see also in the next verses where Peter tries to persuade Jesus not to go to the cross that he is a sinner. From rock to stumbling block, from felling tall to feeling small. From something revealed from God the Father, not from man (that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God) to thinking thoughts that come from man, not from God. I went on to challenge the children to think about they thoughts they think – from God or from man. Are they tall or small in their thoughts? Are they a rock or a stumbling stone. Jesus is the Son of God – only God himself can show us that, we can’t work it out. Are you, like Peter, a Chrsitian, someone who trusts Jesus as the Christ, the Son of the living God, but also a sinner who needs forgiven. I led in, I hope, suitable prayer.
Taking Peter on, we read in Like of how, despite Peter’s protests Jesus told him he would deny him three times. We then read that passage, counting out the denials. Then we turned to John where by the lake Jesus asks Peter three times if he loved him and three times Peter says you know that I love you. Establishing the connection between the three denials and the three questions and affirmations of love, we saw that were there is sin, there is always the opportunity of repentance, return and re-commitment. We noted how at the lakeside Jesus had shown the disciples where to catch the fish, just as he had done in Luke when he first called them. Jesus’ conversation with Peter ends with him saying Follow me just as he had said when he first called Peter. So this was a new start for Peter. I then applied this to the children, enabling those who wanted to to call out their love for Jesus, and affirming that if they had denied Jesus or let him down they could make a new start with him. I gave the opportunity for anyone who wanted to come up to the front to be prayed for in that regard to do so. No one did come forward, and as Stephen advised, I didn’t prolong the time. I then led in prayer that all the children might know Jesus loves them and that they might love Jesus, with a particular prayer for any who had let him down and needed a new start.
I felt there was good listening, and quite a few by their responses, were understanding my English rather than depending on the translation. And no one got caned!

The evening ended with the children from each area coming up to the front and being prayed for by the leaders who stood round them in an arc. While they were being prayed for, the rest of the children sang songs. I think they were songs about each area. Certainly when the children from Seren were up the song used the word ‘Seren’ several times. I thought this was a great way of making all the children feel included, especially the ‘outsiders’ such as those who were Turkana rather than Samburu.
 


Time for a last cup of Milo – a malt chocolate drink made by Nestle and saying goodbye to Kasoni.
Jim