After flying for 3 days with an overnight stay in Amsterdam, we arrived in Nairobi and took a closing puddle-jumper flight to Mombasa…whew! For 2 weeks now we’ve been trying to e-mail you several hours of our verbally recorded day by day thoughts in 15 minute segments, but have been unable to do it via Internet. So, I’ll try to recap it for you this way and try to send you the verbal recordings another time.
About 3/4’s of our time has gone to the measles campaign which has touched our lives deeply. We began by helping Corwin & Peggy organize local African volunteers to work with us and the Red Cross. The Red Cross has been great to work with, with much more professionalism and less corruption than the Ministry of Health. Many of them are Muslims, whom we have found to be wonderful people.It's Ramadan time and the Muslim calls to prayers occur regularly throughout the day.
Women are dressed in their black burkas, some only showing their eyes, others their faces. Many wear beautiful shawls over the top of the burka and sometimes you can see a bit of a matching dress on the bottom. Many of our volunteers came from the local Church branches. We provided red hats and red t-shirts for them, which they loved. Many were so proud of them that we could see them wearing them underneath their clothing at Church!
We created a little choir of kids to sing a cute measles jingle for the introductory meetings and the radio. The volunteers then went from door to door, hut to hut, spreading the word that measles shots would be given at the local health clinics. The shot-giving was kicked off at two slums here in Mombasa and then have been going on all over Kenya the past several days.I can’t describe the terrible living conditions adequately to you… especially in this area of Kenya where the drought is into it’s 3rd year. People and animals are dying in the worst areas and living on whatever they can scrape up. I’m not just talking about the slums.
In the poorer areas, the Red Cross is giving out bags of maize and after a truck distributed them, we passed for hours and miles lines of mostly women, many with babies strapped to their backs, carrying the bags on their heads walking through inches of red African dust to their shacks/huts in the countryside. That’s all they would have to eat in their little shacks, many with dirt floors, no electricity, of course, and no running water.
The slums were terrible. We climbed down a narrow, slippery, rocky path about a half mile to the river bottom…walking past and through trashy, filthy huts and dug out places to live in the ground. We passed people with obvious diseases, including AIDS, of course, who have little hope in life.At the river bottom, hundreds of mothers and their babies and small children stood waiting in
around 15 lines for the shots. Their eyes were filled with gratitude as their little babies and children cried out as the shot was given and their little finger dipped in purple ink. Despite measles being totally preventable, over 500 children die each day from it around the world. Our hearts especially went out to these in the slums… because, similar to most African people we’ve met, most of them, even here in the slums, give us big smiles and friendly faces and many times respond to our “Jumbo!” with their own response back to us. We have gotten very used to gracious, 
kind, genuine interchanges like that…it's the African way and truly admirable, considering their poor living conditions and opportunities in life. They truly are in the “first shall be last and the last shall be first” category and make many of us consider more seriously that “where much is given, much is expected in return” because for sure I know I fall very short. The difference with 
these poor people here in these slums is that the fact is there is little hope for them in any way…yet, here they were, still smiling loving faces and giving kind words back to us we seldom could understand.We had been regularly passing every day football field size trash dumps and seeing goats, cattle, and adults and children shifting through the trash for food. But, we never realized how truly bad it is until we climbed and walked amidst where
they lived in the slums. How can you describe being fearful of even shaking hands with a person or not really wanting to sit on the dirt floor with a woman and her baby inside her little “home” the size of a small bathroom because of the filth and fear of disease? We definitely did not drink the filthy water from their same cup or even consider taking a bite from an apple offered in such a humble way. The truth is that we were not offered such a thing in the slums because they had little to offer that way.
The branch members and other volunteers have been wonderful to work with. Some of Corwin and Peggy's church funds are being used to provide them transport. But, instead of using it for that, they are walking 3-4 hours to the villages to contact people about measles, and then using the transport money to buy food for their own families and sometimes the people they are contacting.
Then, at the end of the day, they walk 3-4 hours back to their own homes to get a few hours of sleep before the next day. What giant, noble hearts they have! Though poor, it became quickly obvious to us how intelligent they are and that all they need is a chance to improve their lives. But, when a dollar here will feed a family, though only with some maize and a little greenery, for several days, you begin to understand how inwardly strong and noble they are.
For Church members, in their tattered. but clean clothes, their greatest goal is to go to the temple someday. Few have gone, but it is their dream. In the Chyulu hills, we met in branches with no electricity or running water, but hymns sung with their Swahili dialect with gusto and joy.We talked with Branch Presidents who were so grateful for their jobs cleaning car windows at gas stations and living in homes with no roof, electricity, etc. Yet, Corwin and Peggy regularly said the Church had progressed so much since their first mission here several years ago. Indeed, there were branches who met in little school buildings and other kinds of places which would be considered quite substandard, but to them are a huge step up and very blessed to have. For example, they did have an accompaniment to their songs, even if it was a car battery-operated recording of a piano. Yet, even from that branch, we watched these wonderful people walk to their small hut homes close by the branch building where we knew they were going to go to sleep that night with no electricity or running water. And, of course, as we drove home, before finally reaching the highway to Mombasa miles away, we saw no other cars.
At the very best, we saw a few old bicycles being ridden, but mostly they all walked everywhere in the countryside. Even in the city, few owned cars, but either walk or catch a tricycle-motor scooter Tu Tu or Matatu, a communal taxi.At first, as we drove along the main road between the villages to Mombasa (our base town and the 2nd largest city in Kenya), we were puzzled why at night there were so many people still walking or mingling all along the way. Then, we realized it was because it was dark in their homes and not much to do unless they were sleeping! Also, all along the way were little huts where food and everything was being sold…anything to scratch out some kind of a living.
Everywhere we go we see people, especially women, carrying yellow jugs of water, usually on their heads. Because of the drought, water is a huge factor in their lives and a daily task to somehow acquire.Yet, somehow the members come out of their poor homes looking sparkling clean, even if it is in tattered clothes. Their testimonies of the Gospel are so very strong and when they bear them, a person is surprised how deep they are. Their understanding may not be broad, but their conviction of the most important essentials goes very deep to their souls.
For example, we met a Branch President whose daughter had been bitten by a snake and died. But, he was at Church the next day and when Peggy broke down in tears, he put his arm around her and said, “Don’t be so sad, Sister Ogborn, I will see her in the resurrection.” We met another whose garden had been destroyed by elephants who just said, “I’ll replant and God will take care of us.”Each Sunday, we have been asked to speak in church, teach classes, give prayers, etc. Yet, we feel they should be teaching us, not the other way around.
Many of the leaders are young converts who have somehow filled a mission, even though here that usually means never going to college because of the mission expense. Oh yes, “college” could likely mean 6 months training to become a carpenter. After Church, we drove away looking behind at scores of little children running behind us in the red dust for a mile till their little legs finally gave out.
We will share more this way when we can get Internet connections. And, we have taken hundreds of pictures. For sure, when we get home we will share our Ipod recordings where we have vocally recorded our impressions. Needless to say, many of those have our voice cracking as tears come as we share such memories.We love you all very much and miss you, too. Thanks for letting us share these thoughts with you. The time is flying by, but we love each day and feel so blessed to have the opportunity to be among these wonderful people.
Love from Kenya,
Mom and Dad, Gma Gpa, Dick and Lawana
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