Planet Money, an economics podcast by NPR, had a really interesting episode on what happens to used T-shirts. It turns out some of them wind up in Kenya and (I’m assuming) worn by the kids in our working group. And, every step of the way (of course), they generate economic activity.

The first stop in Kenya is at the business of a woman who, 15 years ago, was selling used T-shirts one at a time. I don’t know for sure, but I’m imagining a kiosk like the ones our kids run.

Here’s the episode: The Afterlife of a T-shirt.

So, the morning after we arrived, before our first visit (to our working groups), Reegan sat us all down in the patio area of the hotel and gave us a long background talk on ZOE, very dense with figures and procedures. It took at least 90 minutes. Here is as much of that as we could capture.

(This turned out to be a monstrous post that took a while to reconstruct from the excellent notes Erika took, with a few of my own sprinkled in. This applies to ZOE in Kenya, as told to us by Reegan and fleshed out with my own impressions and recollections, as hazy as they are.)

Continue reading Reegan’s Long Backgrounder Lecture the First Day →

Trying to master iMovie.  I found a way to mute last names (hopefully nobody can lip-read Swahili).

These are two members of our working group, Moses (he was pictured in the Chimes newsletter, and Erika has posted about him on her Facebook page), and Nathan.

• Moses
• Nathan

On cell phones in Kenya. We noticed that more people than we expected have a cell phone in Kenya, including some of the orphans. It turns out that having a cell phone in Kenya is actually pretty cheap,  in addition to being useful for business and for just plain human connection.

http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/07/24/12909129-kenyans-use-cell-phones-for-everything-from-buying-groceries-to-paying-rent

Here’s an article on cell phones and the “law of one price:”  http://www.economist.com/node/9149142

The upshot is: we shouldn’t make assumptions that what we pay for cell phone coverage in the U.S. is what the rest of the world pays.

After the group did their presentations, and we each spoke, Reegan spoke.  He had strong “you can do it” encouragement for them (hopefully, I got it on video, but if not: it was powerful).  He knows what the orphans face, and he knows they are capable of overcoming it.  I hope to hear from this group (“Barakuro Glory”) to see if they get crops next year, because that landscape looks almost Martian.
Continue reading The Rest of Our First-Year Group Visit →

On Sunday, we didn’t visit anybody, but we did attend church, at the Maua Methodist church (MCK: Methodist Church in Kenya). It was very loud (the PA system was turned up to 11). It was also very well attended. The minister is a former banker. He preached a sermon about “drive”: as a Christian, what drives you? It was quite the exhortation, and at several points, he interrupted his sermon to check to see if we were listening. “Hello? Is there anybody here today?” I think we were all stunned by the PA system, which may have been turned up so loud so that it could be heard out in the street, over the traffic.

He called our little missioneer group up to the front of the church to introduce ourselves and say a little something about our trip. I suppose one must always have an elevator speech, ready to go at the drop of a hat.

After church (between the 2nd and 3rd services), we visited with the minister and several of the church’s leading members, including the church’s chairman. (I probably didn’t get that quite right; head layperson, at any rate.) We had tea and biscuits. It was very pleasant, and, I felt, an honor.

After we left the church, several of us had expressed an interest in walking around the town of Maua, just to see what we could see. Carolyne, the wife of the minister, just happens to work for ZOE, and she agreed to walk us around. It was “interesting”.

Continue reading Attended Church in Maua →

Just in case it’s not intuitively obvious, ZOE is an UMCOR Advance project.

• ZOE’s UMCOR Advance entry
• About The Advance

So, our mission trip to Kenya had two purposes:

1. Represent our church to the orphans of our working group.
2. Represent our working group to our church.  To that end, here’s the first big step in that direction: Our church newsletter.

The second day of visiting groups (Monday, I think), we visited a third-year group in Tharaka-Nithi county, usually just referred to as Tharaka county.  Reegan came with us, and I videotaped a lot of the presentations.  (I’ll get them posted as soon as I can.)

The road to Tharaka was incredible.  Substantial parts unpaved and very rough.  I sat over the back axle of the van we were in (one of those all-wheel drive safari-type things, although not the stereotypical Land Rover).  That ride was the part of the entire mission trip that was the most physically taxing, and I would not recommend that anyone with back problems sit over the rear axle on a road like that.

When we got to where the group was, we all shook hands with each group member.  It was like two soccer teams shaking hands after a game: missioneers on one side, group members on the other, lines passing each other.  “Jambo, jambo, jambo, …” It was nice, actually.

Continue reading Day Two of Visiting: A Third-Year Group and Graduates in Tharaka →