Appleseed Travel Journal

— Cowtail on a Stick

I bought a lovely cow tail attached to a stick for 60 cents from a peddler on the street in Kitale...thought it would be good for displays at events back home....unfortunately, it stinks so badly, even wrapped in TWO plastic bags with duct tape, so very reluctantly I was forced to ditch it at our last stop.  Thankfully, my fortune changed. In Kisumu my beloved Roger gave into spending a whole 45 minutes with me in a little side-street alley where native (and some not so native) crafts are sold.  Each vendor grabs your arm, saying in clear English, “Hi, I’ve been waiting for you!  Come and see my shop!”  and then anxiously describes each article and how much either you need it or your friends back home do. One of the vendors, a tall, lanky guy actually did have many things that I thought were interesting:  huge drums stretched with cow hides as well as other fascinating musical instruments, even a huge long metal spear, complete with some kind of tail hanging off the end and leather strips with colorful beads.  I stopped to look and that’s when our fifteen-minute conversation took over.  He had several of the cow tails on a stick like the one I had bought before and thought I really needed one…for $8.00!!  He told me they were perfect for swatting flies or for dusting my “beautiful furniture” at home?!  I was explaining how I had already bought one in Kitale and how very nasty the thing was and how extremely disgusting the smell was, so much so that I had had to throw it away.  He was horrified!  He explained carefully how you have to wash it, scrub it with your hands with the wash tub and soap and water.  Then, he continued to explain IN DETAIL that it was because of where the tail is on the cow.  Geeshhhhh, how gross!!!  And, here it is traveling around in my suitcase.  Literally, when I took the two bags and all the duct tape off (reluctantly shared by Roger as it’s typically saved for mosquito nets we encounter with holes in them), I seriously thought I was going to throw up the smell was so bad.  So, yes, I gave it another go.  I bought ANOTHER cow tail on a stick promising to go home and follow his directions.  So, now it’s been sitting in a wash bucket for two days with a ½ cup of laundry soap.  Tomorrow, I plan to hang it in the sun for at least a few days hoping to bleach out any last odors or living things. Fortunately, for me, I was able to find someone to help me scrounge through the trash out back and retrieve the old cow tail on a stick, so now I have two soaking away!  Some people just pay the big bucks in the souvenir shops for the ones already washed, I guess, with the pretty carved elephants for a handle or beautiful beadwork (check out the photo).  Mine?  A wooden stick!!!!! Price???   $1.20!!!!  He said, “Madam, you are a very good bargainer, not like the others!”  YAHOOO for me!  Do you think it’s worth it?  Mmmm, I’ll let you know!  Hey, and if you happen to know any other suggestions, please send them along!  Yes, ditching them both is still on the table as a viable (and perhaps the only) option.

— Josephine

Just a few miles north of the equator in western Kenya lies the Vihiga District.  The main town there is also named the same and is on the southern edge of Kakamega Forest.  We’ve passed through this forest area once before where I was shocked to see a huge baboon scampering across the road.  This time we were lucky enough to see 25 or so large baboons being chased out of town down the main street where they had once again wreaked havoc stealing vegetables and trinkets from local shopkeepers. We stopped at church planter Amy’s house to check out some of the projects Appleseed is involved in with folks there and in the area.  For example, we got to meet a woman there who had just harvested her beets and was getting ready to dry them.  Close by along the road, there were many girls all crammed into a tiny space with huge smiles, lots of laughter, all excited and committed to learning tailoring skills.  Then there was another gal with rabbits for selling.  We met others, a disabled man weaving baskets, another husband and wife working in their hotel (restaurant).  We got to visit with group after group of people who are really lifting themselves up, facing some challenges for sure, but so hopeful for their newfound futures. Then we were led across the main road to head for Alice’s home.  We trekked some distance down a red dirt, thick foliage bordered road “Jambo-ing” (hello-ing) everyone along the way, some with baskets or sacks of beans or potatoes on their heads, others herding two or three cows, a group of men animated and fiercely talking about Kenyan politics.  After a time, we reached Alice’s small vegetable stand signifying the entrance to her home.  She smiled sheepishly and invited us in where we were pleasantly surprised to find that we were coming together with others for a house church gathering. The home was typical with dirt flooring, two windows filling the room with light, and adults taking up every square inch of the tiny living room.  We clustered around the coffee table where I knew African tea (milk, sugar and tea boiled together) would be served later.  Some of the women were those I had met with the day before, so I felt very much at home and happy to see familiar faces.  Others, typically Kenyan, were warm, friendly, and relaxed with us as each one shared introductions. We had a great time in worship, prayer, and Bible study together.  And, then the moment happened, as always does in a house church meeting, the moment you have been waiting for, when the Holy Spirit reveals something to you personally.  That’s when Josephine began to speak. She shared her heart, what house church meant to her.  Before coming to this gathering, she felt so despised as a woman, even as a human being, that no one cared about her and not only was she worthless, but there was no hope for anything better.  She had no family and “was very, very low.”  When she started coming to this group, people accepted her for who she was.  They loved her, cared about her, lifted her up both in a spiritual way and physical way, empowering her by reading the Word of God and her receiving it and believing it for herself.  Now she says she has the “boldness and confidence of a man!”  She has family and is confident to share her testimony and the Word of God with others.   She no longer hides from life, but participates in life.  She has grabbed a hold of the opportunity before her to learn skills with the other women in her house church - skills like beading and crocheting, making things to sell at the larger market in the larger town of Kisumu on Saturdays.  She’s committed to a better way of life, learning business skills, life skills, work skills.  She is passionate in her faith in the God who loves her, picked her up from the trash heap and set her in a family to believe with her, in her and encourage her. Tea came.  Conversation extended, then the traditional handshake good-byes.  Saved for those you know well and love, I was given not only a handshake, but then first a kiss on the left cheek, then the right.  I, too, felt accepted and cared about.  I, too, get to experience what it means to be part of a house church family. Alice's house: Alice's vegetable stand: House church family: Harvesting beets:

— Communication

I LOVE the way Kenyans communicate.  They speak their own language among others of the same tribe, use Swahali most all of the time AND read, write and speak English, too, thankfully!  Their accent is delightful, mostly influenced by the British, but with their own language affecting their words as well.  Somehow some of the ways they phrase words together expresses so much better what I what to say than I could ever say it.  Along with their verbal communication is their wonderful body language.  Often they touch one another with a hand on the shoulder or arm or slapping each other’s hand when they are excited about what was said, sharing a common experience, laughing together.  All the time one is listening to the other, there are facial expressions hard to imagine in our stoic culture.  The raised eyebrow, the pooched out lips, the head tilting back quickly, a sign of agreement or maybe asking directions for which way to go, they look in the right direction with their chins moving in a quick jerk upwards signifying the way….all of these expressions with no words exchanged yet the other knows exactly what is meant.  And, listening skills?  They are great listeners often giving a hmmm, or gasp of delight or horror as the case may be, or a grunt of agreement or a clicking of the tongue to acknowledge understanding of how bad something might be.  As far as spoken words, though, here are just a few of the great things I’ve heard and thought, “Now why didn’t I think to say it that way?” Examples:

When I asked a friend how her marriage was, she replied, “Well, it’s not bad, but let’s just say he doesn’t quite exalt me.”  (mmmm, girls, do you feel exalted today????  I’m not thinking I do so much…loved yes, exalted? Maybe not!)

Talking with another friend and asking how it’s going, she said, “I am so stressed up; life is hard, hard, hard.”  (I can be stressed out, but maybe when life is extra challenging, I’m really feeling stressed up!)

“We must delete ourselves from the situation.”  (Self-explanatory I guess).

A mom trying to deal with her restless and very bored children in a restaurant, “Please be calm.”

Not to waste precious cell phone minutes or time, a caller says, “This is ___________.”   The receiver of the call may respond, “Tell me what you want to say!”   (How many times have you ever wanted to speak to someone so directly!)

In reference to the many, many “brokers,” men you might pay to help you get across a border, money exchangers, taxi drivers, men or women or children in your face wanting you to buy a soda, fruit or who knows what, I was told, “When you go somewhere for the first time, there are many people there to deceive you.”

In reference to someone a friend thought was pretty much a jerk, he told me, “He is not a very bad man (with strong emphasis on the ‘very’).”  This holds true for most anything.  If you don’t like it, you just say, “It’s not very bad!”  Nice twist, huh?

“I do not know why they want to confuse the price.”  (referring to the price of very limited gas in Kitale right now with the price fluctuating throughout the day.)

Regarding the purchase of a used dresser from a neighbor:  “He is thinking of disposing of a dresser and I am thinking of receiving it.”

“I must go help myself.” (I am going to use the toilet.)

Regarding the challenges of a project one of the guys has been working on, he said, “It has been difficult from day one to day last.”

Referring to the level of concentration it takes to drive on pot-holed, red dirt road in Uganda:  “If your thoughts are mixed, it (a car accident) will surely be your fault.”

“They are proud of being big.” (referring to a tractor trailer angling to get in front of everyone else on a thin strip of pot-holed, dirt road.  The general traffic rule being if you are bigger you can overpower anyone else, which everyone obliges, even if begrudgingly.)

With six of us piled into a car as we were leaving Uganda, a friend prayed, “Daddy, thank you for this good day.  Now we beg you to be our Provider, our Protector, our Friend as we make this journey to the border.  In Jesus’ name, Amen.”

So, you can see why I LOVE to be in Africa!  The people are loving, extremely hospitable, warm, animated, and kind.  We have come to enjoy, appreciate and love them so very much! Check out some of the folks we get to hang out with:

— Liberty School

We spent one day this past week in Bikeke Village at Liberty School.  John, the Director, had set up a special meeting with the parents, along with lunch for them, us, and the children and staff who are fed each day. When we got there we spent some time with the kids, then headed to one of the classrooms to greet the parents and guardians of orphans.  They were dressed to the nines, ready and waiting...not a full representation, but many women and even men.  It was very, very good and I enjoyed meeting the parents of some of the students we have come to recognize and love.  This school meeting was unlike any in the US, so to me, it was really fun and fascinating.  John is hysterically funny, blunt, forthright and so compassionate and loving...trying to teach  the parents and guardians new concepts, the importance of education, owning the school themselves, the importance of sleeping under a net for protection against malaria – all done respectfully and lovingly, somehow not offending them.  I’m not sure how he does all he does for that community, school, and his church, as well as be on the Board at a public school and head of the pastor’s association in the group of villages out there, AND he has four children and a wife!  The day was great out there, even if far too short and ending with a rainstorm and a flat tire. Kids getting fresh water from the newly drilled well: Every child received a mosquito net to protect them from the deadly disease of malaria: Some moms who came to the parent/guardian meeting: Time to go, but...

— Arrived in Kitale; Luggage Comes Later

We made it to Kitale by noon last Monday, warmly greeted by Dawson and his brother Caleb and our friend and church planter, John, from Kakamega.  We were so relieved to learn that Dawson’s poor van, that we’ve experienced breakdowns in many times, has, as he said, “received a new heart” and “new legs.”  I never understood the leg part, but the new heart was in reference to a new engine.  So, now it actually does go faster than 30 and hums like a new car!  So, grateful that we arrived safely, alas, our luggage did not!  Can you imagine?  It has accompanied us all the way from California, to London, to Bydgoszcz, back to London, then to Nairobi, but on this little bitty plane, an hour ride, and our bags did not come with us?!  Not to worry, though, thankfully, we happen to know one of the workers at the Kitale Airport – or rather landing strip - and somehow miraculously all arrived last night after 10.  Yay!  Toothbrush and toothpaste after all! On arrival at where we stay, you can only imagine my complete horror that “our room” had been taken!!  So, we’ve moved into another, not to be outdone by our old room, though.  It has it’s own idiosyncrasies (photo attached; Roger’s ingenuity to use a coathanger I had brought to keep the back of the seat from falling down on you).  Within 10 minutes of getting here, a couple from a nearby town was ready to greet us, excited about the upcoming trainings.  So, after meeting with them, we trekked to do some shopping in the nearby “Walmart,” called Khetia’s.  It’s very relaxed here, warm and green.  Huge birds, perhaps some kind of stork, as always are hanging out in the big trees lining the streets.  There is a big agriculture trade show for the week, so the streets are crowded with lots of people as this is the hub for agriculture for the entire country.  We found ourselves very comfortable in familiar territory as we walked down the streets winding in and out of bicycles, cars, matatus (vans that are buses), and for me, men, as ALL have the right-of-way above me, as a woman.  I glanced in one alleyway where Elizabeth, Dawson’s wife, has a little shop, and there she was waving and beaming at us as we came closer to greet her and see what she is selling today, promising to meet for tea later. After buying a couple of more soccer balls and candy for the kids at the school, we began the search  going in and out of shops trying to find a computer bag for the newly purchased computer for Pastor John, the man who began and now runs the Bikeke School.  Once again we were greeted, as so often happens here, by two friends running up to us with big smiles, a handshake and a kiss on each cheek.  We do feel quite at home and content.    Later that night we caught up with Dawson and his family and the next day to the school in Bikeke Village.  More to come... Side street in Kitale: Making the accommodations work:

Pages

Subscribe to Appleseed Travel Journal