Well, next week this time I'll be in America, and not just for a visit! That still seems surreal to me, but I'm feeling convinced that the timing is right. With the ending of this chapter in Kenya, however, come a LOT of loose ends to tie up (which is why blogging hasn't happened a whole lot lately). This week I've been having final meetings with people, compiling things for a post-Nick CFA Kenya, creating final updates, going through drawers, saying good-byes, sorting clothes...and the list goes on.
In the midst of all that, I'm trying to get my heart prepared for all the changes ahead and attempting to listen and respond to where God is leading my thoughts and my actions in a period of upheaval. I would appreciate your prayers for this time - life in Kenya has become normal for me, and "normal" is about to look very different. While I'm excited for the next step, I'm also feeling a lot of uncertainty right now about readjusting to life in America. I know it's going to require patience, flexibility, and the wisdom of God to see where he is leading us.
Thursday, April 28, 2011
Thursday, April 21, 2011
Adoption vs. Life Sustained
I'm currently reading a book given to me by my Aunt called there is no me without you by Melissa Faye Greene. I can't give a full review or recommendation on the book yet (I'm only four chapters in), but I wanted to share an excerpt from early on in the book that hits at the heart of the perspective of CARE for AIDS on a role as an orphan preventer and not an orphan caretaker:
"Adoption is not the answer to HIV/AIDS in Africa. Adoption rescues few. Adoption illuminates by example: these few once-loved children -- who lost parents to preventable diseases -- have been offered a second chance at family life in foreign countries; like young ambassadors, they instruct us. ...
'Adoption is a last resort,' I would be told in November 2005 by Haddush Halefom, head of the Children's Commission under Ethiopia's Ministry of Labor, the arbiter of intercountry adoptions...'I am deeply respectful of the families who care for our children,' he said. 'But I am so very interested in any help that can be given to us to keep the children's first parents alive. Adoption is good, but children, naturally, would prefer not to see their parents die.'"
People often ask us what we are doing for the orphan victims of the HIV/AIDS crisis in Africa. Sometimes its hard to answer, basically, that we aren't doing anything for the existing orphans. Thankfully, there are many other organizations, churches, and individuals raising money and reaching out to take care of orphans. Our focus is on the less apparent side - taking care of HIV-positive parents and enabling them to live 20 or 25 years to raise their children themselves. Right now there are about 800 current CARE for AIDS clients, representing at least 2,500 children. Two thousand five hundred children who won't have to experience what it's like to be an orphan.
"Adoption is not the answer to HIV/AIDS in Africa. Adoption rescues few. Adoption illuminates by example: these few once-loved children -- who lost parents to preventable diseases -- have been offered a second chance at family life in foreign countries; like young ambassadors, they instruct us. ...
'Adoption is a last resort,' I would be told in November 2005 by Haddush Halefom, head of the Children's Commission under Ethiopia's Ministry of Labor, the arbiter of intercountry adoptions...'I am deeply respectful of the families who care for our children,' he said. 'But I am so very interested in any help that can be given to us to keep the children's first parents alive. Adoption is good, but children, naturally, would prefer not to see their parents die.'"
People often ask us what we are doing for the orphan victims of the HIV/AIDS crisis in Africa. Sometimes its hard to answer, basically, that we aren't doing anything for the existing orphans. Thankfully, there are many other organizations, churches, and individuals raising money and reaching out to take care of orphans. Our focus is on the less apparent side - taking care of HIV-positive parents and enabling them to live 20 or 25 years to raise their children themselves. Right now there are about 800 current CARE for AIDS clients, representing at least 2,500 children. Two thousand five hundred children who won't have to experience what it's like to be an orphan.
Tuesday, April 19, 2011
Knowledge Multiplication
I'm an engineer (technically), which makes me, by default, a big fan of math and machines. While my current job doesn't involve too many machines of the mechanical kind - except when my car falls apart - it does involve the creation of mechanisms that attempt to maximize the effectiveness of the resources that CARE for AIDS has at its disposal. I love the idea of an exponential curve applied to growth of any kind, essentially a process where something multiplies then multiplies again and again and again...and never stops. This shows up in all kinds of ways through CFA. For example, if we can help one mother live an extra 20 years, she can keep 4 kids from becoming orphans...then each of those 4 kids can grow up empowered to give THEIR 4 kids a better life...and so it goes.
Another way this idea of exponential growth shows up is in the proliferation of knowledge. Last year, the Central Baptist center in Kisumu held a seminar hosted by an outside facilitator in which clients were taught how to use cheap or free materials to make baskets, which they can sell for people to use when shopping, carrying products to market, storing items in their homes, etc. One client, Mary Ochieng, took this skill and ran with it. She collected construction waste like the wrapping on bundles of materials and created baskets that sold well and provided a much-needed income. The workers at Central told the workers at a different CFA center in Nyalenda Baptist Church about Mary, and last week she visited the current group of clients at Nyalenda to pass on the basket-making skills that she learned last year. Not only is this a great encouragement to the new clients - they get to learn from someone who was in the EXACT same position that they are - it's an empowering experience for Mary. She gets a little extra income from spending a day teaching, but she also receives the confidence and hope that come from realizing that you have something to offer and knowing that you have helped other people.
Now the simple skill of basket-making has "jumped" from one community to another, and the training of one client at Central has multiplied to a whole group of clients at Nyalenda. That's engineering I can get excited about...
Another way this idea of exponential growth shows up is in the proliferation of knowledge. Last year, the Central Baptist center in Kisumu held a seminar hosted by an outside facilitator in which clients were taught how to use cheap or free materials to make baskets, which they can sell for people to use when shopping, carrying products to market, storing items in their homes, etc. One client, Mary Ochieng, took this skill and ran with it. She collected construction waste like the wrapping on bundles of materials and created baskets that sold well and provided a much-needed income. The workers at Central told the workers at a different CFA center in Nyalenda Baptist Church about Mary, and last week she visited the current group of clients at Nyalenda to pass on the basket-making skills that she learned last year. Not only is this a great encouragement to the new clients - they get to learn from someone who was in the EXACT same position that they are - it's an empowering experience for Mary. She gets a little extra income from spending a day teaching, but she also receives the confidence and hope that come from realizing that you have something to offer and knowing that you have helped other people.
Now the simple skill of basket-making has "jumped" from one community to another, and the training of one client at Central has multiplied to a whole group of clients at Nyalenda. That's engineering I can get excited about...
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| Mary teaches basket-weaving at a Nyalenda seminar |
Thursday, April 14, 2011
Switching Gears
I have a tendency to get in "work mode." On the positive side, this can make me extra-efficient and super focused on getting things done, but it can also make me keep going when I need to rest or struggle to take my mind completely off of responsibilities. Thankfully, I'm usually pretty good at getting myself out of "work mode" when it's not time to be working, but every once in a while occasions come up that flip the switch for a big chunk of time. The last two weeks of March were one of those chunks. Managing both of the CFA vision trips that came to Kenya took almost all of my brain power and close to all of my waking hours, and then the following week of spending time with Justin and Caleb was fun, but still pretty focused.
Thankfully, there is a place called the beach and a thing called vacation, and four days of that place and thing were just what I needed to get my "work mode" switch to the OFF position! Jane and I had an incredible trip out to the Kenyan coast, just south of Mombasa on the Indian Ocean. Spending time relaxing with each other, reading lazily by the pool, playing lots of volleyball, praying without feeling rushed, eating luxuriously decadent food, and laughing with incredible friends was the perfect follow-up to a very full month. Thank God for giving us the strength to persevere through the challenges, as well as the beautiful relief that follows them!
Thankfully, there is a place called the beach and a thing called vacation, and four days of that place and thing were just what I needed to get my "work mode" switch to the OFF position! Jane and I had an incredible trip out to the Kenyan coast, just south of Mombasa on the Indian Ocean. Spending time relaxing with each other, reading lazily by the pool, playing lots of volleyball, praying without feeling rushed, eating luxuriously decadent food, and laughing with incredible friends was the perfect follow-up to a very full month. Thank God for giving us the strength to persevere through the challenges, as well as the beautiful relief that follows them!
Thursday, April 7, 2011
Kenya from the air!
A couple of weeks ago, I got to embark on one of the coolest days of my time in Kenya. Early in the morning, I drove in to the tiny Wilson airport south of Nairobi and hopped in a 6-seater Cessna 206 with a sweet Mission Aviation pilot named Reini. This plane was smaller than my car, and I got to ride in the "copilot" seat up front while we flew over Nairobi, past Mt. Kenya, and up to the Samburu area to meet the Thompsons. SO AWESOME!
We picked up Donald and Brenda and flew out over the Rift Valley to Kisumu, where we got a fantastic fish/ugali lunch by the lake and hung out with the center workers and clients at Nanga Baptist Church. It was so fun to introduce the Thompsons to Kisumu, and it was a huge encouragement for the CFA workers to have visitors all the way from America. Most guests don't get out that far from Nairobi, so the visit was a rare treat for them!
From there, we flew back across the Central Highlands to Nairobi. The weather took a turn for the worse on this leg, though, and soon we found ourselves dodging (literally!) giant black clouds and rainstorms. Listening to Donald and Reini make seat-of-their pants decisions on where to fly the plane and then holding on while we banked around towering clouds was surreal - a completely opposite experience from flying on a giant airliner! It was incredibly exciting, though, and we ended up making a safe landing at Wilson airport.
What an awesome day! I've never had a huge desire to be a pilot, but this just might have flipped a switch haha...
We picked up Donald and Brenda and flew out over the Rift Valley to Kisumu, where we got a fantastic fish/ugali lunch by the lake and hung out with the center workers and clients at Nanga Baptist Church. It was so fun to introduce the Thompsons to Kisumu, and it was a huge encouragement for the CFA workers to have visitors all the way from America. Most guests don't get out that far from Nairobi, so the visit was a rare treat for them!
From there, we flew back across the Central Highlands to Nairobi. The weather took a turn for the worse on this leg, though, and soon we found ourselves dodging (literally!) giant black clouds and rainstorms. Listening to Donald and Reini make seat-of-their pants decisions on where to fly the plane and then holding on while we banked around towering clouds was surreal - a completely opposite experience from flying on a giant airliner! It was incredibly exciting, though, and we ended up making a safe landing at Wilson airport.
What an awesome day! I've never had a huge desire to be a pilot, but this just might have flipped a switch haha...
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