Trust

This morning, I'm meditating on this passage from Isaiah:

Open the gates,
so that the righteous nation that keeps faith may enter in.
Those of steadfast mind you keep in peace -
in peace because they trust in you.
Trust in the LORD forever,
for in the LORD God
you have an everlasting Rock.

Would you please join me in praying for peace in Kenya,
and even while there is no peace in the region,
that we would have peace in our hearts
because we trust God!

Risotto

I can't remember ever having had risotto. I certainly have never made it. Till today. I had brought some stuff with me to cook a nice meal for my colleagues who simply seemed worn out by all that's been unfolding around them. And since we've been having power outages every night from 7 till almost 7 am, I thought it wise to cook the chicken I had bought on Sunday as well as the ground beef. (And no, I didn't put ground beef in the risotto. I made meat balls, just in case someone didn't care for the rice dish.)

I cooked an entire chicken in my iron pot so I'd have good chicken stock as well as chunks of chicken to add to the rice dish. And I used some dried shiitake mushrooms I also picked up in SA. (The bag of mushrooms weighed a fraction of just the lid of the pot. Should've brought more!)

Now, I agree that risotto isn't the simplest dish to make, simply because it requires a lot of stirring. But I think it's worth it. If one could find arborio rice in town, I'd make it again! But I strongly doubt you can find that in Eldoret. Perhaps in Nairobi. Not here, though.

So, back to dinner. It was good to simply "break bread" together. Life is continuing. Conversations over a meal may be different these days, but we were all in good spirits. Our village seems far removed from all that's unfolding around the country. Much was happening today. Please read the news.

On a different note: Flannel seems delighted to have me back. She's been spending much of her day right by my feet. I don't think she's pregnant, btw. Oh, maybe I haven't told you. Michelle, who was taking care of her while I was gone, thought she might be pregnant.

The kids are glad I'm back, too. I went to visit the children's home yesterday afternoon, and saw little Dennis smiling from ear to ear when I walked into the gazebo. When I looked again, he was sitting by my feet. I picked him up and chatted for a while till I needed to continue my rounds of greeting everyone at the children's home. I'll go back tomorrow to hang out with the kids for a while. I really, really miss the kids in Ilula, especially during this time. I wish I could be there with them, but right now, it's not possible for me to go to Ilula.

I'm glad to be back in Kenya, despite all that's happening around the country. I'm incredibly saddened by all that's happening.

Please keep praying for peace.

Back in the Village

I left Nairobi yesterday morning on a flight to Eldoret. One could see homes burning from the sky. But things in our town seemed normal. Sort of. It was sad to see all the devastation en route to Kipkaren. Things in our village seem calm.

I can no longer comment about anything going on in the country due to security reasons. If you would like to hear from me personally, please e-mail me at adelebooysen@yahoo.com. (That's my junk mail address, btw, so it's not a big deal posting it here. Half the world's junk mail servers seem to have that address, in any case. If you know my regular e-mail address, let me know on that one and I'll send you updates directly.)

For news from Kenya, please check news.google.com so you can read news from various sources.

And please continue to pray for peace.

Back in Nairobi

So I left Johannesburg this morning, as always, with more stuff than I should be trying to take on an international flight. It doesn't help that the weight limit on flights from SA is only 30 kg (about 65 lbs). Try bringing books back on that limit. And treats you can't find in Kenya. Plus your normal luggage. Fortunately, I didn't take a lot of clothes to SA, but still.

The attendant who helped me check in asked, "What do you have that's so heavy?" OK, so I brought a cast iron pot with me (which by itself is 22 lbs). In Kenya, you cannot get cast iron pots. Kenyans cook in aluminum sufrias. In South Africa, probably every house has a potjie (pronounced 'poy-ki) . . . or three. Cause a cast iron pot cooks stews (or soups, or whatever you'd like to toss into it) like nothing else can.

Anyway. So I got the pot on the plane. And everything else. Without having to pay extra. Long story. Partly grace. Mostly connections, for which I am infinitely thankful.

Hardly four hours later, we landed in Nairobi. Kilimanjaro was greeting us beautifully as we approached Nairobi. The city looked normal. Taxis still cut in line. But there was about one third of the usual traffic. There were also fewer vendors on the side of the road. Many shops still aren't open. Things just aren't quite normal yet.

I ran into a friend at Mayfield. She's been stuck here visiting doctors after a really bad cycling accident in Sudan which left her with a dislocated shoulder, and two-pins-and-some-wires-wanting-to-poke-out-after-really-bad-surgery later, she's in Kenya for new surgery to remove the hardware which apparently wasn't necessary to begin with. Poor girl! (You'll enjoy reading her blog, I bet. Interesting life in Sudan.) Anyway, I kidnapped her for the afternoon so she could get out of Mayfield a bit. It was good to hear of the work she'll be doing with a division of AIM. They're looking for positive stories coming from the events in Kenya. It challenged me to do the same. Look for the stories of life among all the pain and devastation.

It's hard, sometimes. Reality is, there's still a lot of pain. One could see it in the faces of some of the people I always run into in Nairobi. You could feel it in the air, the uncertainty. In the city, things truly are better. On the surface, at least. Last night, new violence erupted in Nakuru. (Nakuru is halfway between Nairobi and Eldoret.) I am told things are calm in Eldoret.

Kofi Anan is in Kenya, and he said he had witnessed "gross and systematic human rights abuses."

Obviously, I won't be driving back to Eldoret. (One would have to pass through Nakuru to do so.) I'm flying tomorrow, and should land in Eldoret around 2 pm, at which time colleagues will pick me up. I'm looking forward to being back in my little home, seeing Flannel, seeing my friends in Kipkaren. It will be a while before I can go to Ilula to see my friends there, but I'll let you know how they all are once I get there.

So, for now, I'm going to crawl into my bed here in Mayfield. And pray for peace to come to this land. True Peace. Deep Peace.

And tomorrow? I'll have to try getting my pot onto the next flight again... Among other things the day holds.

Facebook Family Reunion, and Going Home

The downside of having lived abroad for the past 13 years is that I don't see my extended family much. I'm usually only in the country for short periods of time, so my immediate family and close friends are usually the ones I try to see.

Recently, however, I reconnected with some of my second cousins (who I last saw in 1989, when they were little kids) on Facebook. And so the other night, four of them came to my sister's house for desert. (Unfortunately the photo's a bit blurred, but that's is my sister in the back, then me, Tielman, and in the front Elza, Lizette and Nettie.)

It was a fun time of reminiscing about family stuff, especially about my grandma (their great-grandmother). Good memories! My sister gave me some old family photos, and I chuckled at this one of my ouma. She's on the far left, posing with her sisters. Look behind them. My brother is chuckling and I'm the one sitting on the ground. I actually remember this particular day. It's the last time we saw all my ouma's sisters together. (By now, they've all passed on.)

I'm wrapping up last tasks these two days, and flying out on Saturday. I look forward to posting updates from Kenya! I'll land in Nairobi around 3 pm, but will have to spend the night there since a connecting flight to Eldoret would only have me in town by 7 pm, making it too dangerous to drive back to the village. Flying on Sunday would also be better since I can stop in town to stock up on groceries. Lots of it, since it's still hard to get to town past all the (non-police) road blocks.

I'd appreciate your continued prayers for true peace in Kenya. Things are still pretty bad there, though it's safe enough to return.

I'll keep up-to-date on life in Kenya.

Going back this weekend

Last night and this morning, I spoke to David, my director in Kenya, as well as to Julius, ELI's Director of Operations. They agreed that it would be OK for me to come back this weekend. Though there are renewed protests, they believe it's safe enough for me to return to the village, as long as I'd be willing to be careful, not go to town without consulting with our directors, and not hold it agains ELI if anything happens. I'm OK with that.

So, on Saturday morning, I'll be off to Nairobi. I'm waiting to hear if it would be safer to spend the night in the city and take a morning flight. I think that'd be best. Wouldn't want to have to drive to Kipkaren in the dark. I usually don't like it, and now it would even be less of a good idea to drive at night. So on Sunday, I'll fly to Eldoret and then someone will pick me up from the airport.

I look forward to posting news from the village!

Uncertainty

I don't like uncertainty. Who does, anyway? Of course life always holds some level of uncertainty. But this state I'm currently living in - Will I go back to Kenya this week? Are things well enough for me to go? Would it truly be more of a burden for them to have another person there to be responsible for? Would I not be able to pray more effectively when I'm there, in my community? is frustrating.

Friends ask, "Can you join us at such-and-such a time for this-or-that?" Perhaps. If I'm here.

I've made a deliberate choice not to live in a constant state of wishing I was somewhere else. I'm loving the time with family. But I'm not supposed to be here. I am supposed to be in Kenya. I know that. Despite the news that's coming from the country.

Please pray that the doors will open for me to return to Kipkaren this wek!

Kenya: Moving forward?

I just wrote an update on the situation in Kenya on the ELI blog. I've read several news sources, and it's unclear to me if today's protests will continue or not. It is clear, however, that Raila has asked people to move to a new tactic: Boycotting major Kenyan businesses by doing things like withdrawing all their savings from Equity Bank, "the poor man's bank." I cannot help but wonder what the effect of that would be... Things are already unstable. Why would people want to go and take what little they have in a safe place and bring it home?

Daniel raises a similar point on his blog. He talks about Kisumu, a town near Eldoret where things seem to be the worst due to the fact that Raila is from that area. Says Daniel, "People in the city of Kisumu are starving because two weeks ago they burned down most of their super markets and food storage facilities because they were owned by Kikuyus. Now that they got their way and chased the Kikuyus out of their city and burned all their shops, the people are left with no food. They are paying up to 4 times the price for simple things. They didn’t think about that when they soaked the shops with gasoline and lit the match. It amazes me how far people will go because of hate. Thousands of the same young men are jobless because they worked for the Kikuyu business owners. Yes, they are the ones who burned down their bosses shops. Clearly not concluding that if they burn down their place of employment, they won’t have a job the next day, and won’t get a paycheck at the end of the month and won’t have money to buy food that is now 4 times as much."

I am praing that things will settle down in Kenya so life can continue, that people can go back to work to earn what little money they can and quit causing more destruction. And I am praying that I'll be able to head back next week! Despite the dangers of being in an unstable country, I want to be with the people God had called me to serve.

"Tell them!"

I learned a new concept the past few weeks. It's called "load shedding," and it's what Eskom does to most everyone in South Africa. Eskom's our country's "electricity supply commission," but they're not able to currently supply the country with enough electricity. (What's crazy, though, is that they're allegedly exporting power to neighboring countries!)

So what does your supplier do when they don't have the goods to supply? They cut the power. Which would've perhaps been understandable if they announced when they're cutting the power. They say they do on their Web site. However, they don't stick to that schedule. They also say that they won't cut the power for more than two hours in any area. However, over the past 2 weeks, I've personally experienced several days of no power in Pretoria from around 9 a.m. till 6 p.m. (Several in this case would be about 6 days.) What baffles me is that friends in Johannesburg have had no power outages in months.

So what? you may wonder. Imagine the impact on your economy when
a) shops, filling stations, offices have no power for days in a row;
b) you don't know when your power will be out, so you cannot plan work activities accordingly;
c) you don't know how long power will be out, so you don't know if you should simply send your entire staff home, or hope the power comes back on in 2 hours;
d) supplies in homes and shops go bad because of lack of power;
e) banks have to close immediately, movie theaters have to give people refunds, and only a handful of big businesses can afford expensive generators for backup power.

Losses are currently estimated in the "hundreds of millions of Rands" (one dollar = around seven rand).

Imagine the impact on traffic when all the traffic lights simply go out and there aren't cops at intersections to direct traffic. All intersections simply become 4-way stops, causing crazy traffic delays. And you can go on and on and on...

It's been very frustrating not being able to plan activities. You simply don't know if there'll be power tomorrow. Would I be able to e-mail? Don't know. Work on my computer? Not sure. Go to a library and study? Not if there aren't lights.

Ugh. It's really no good!

It seems trivial to complain about something like this when my friends in Kenya are facing a major humanitarian crisis...

News from Kenya today is far from good. The past two days have brought more deaths and more clashes.

It breaks my heart to hear stories of friends who are personally affected by deaths, of division among families and neighbors, of children traumatized by the violence, of a child from my neighborhood in Ilula having been kidnapped and barely escaping death... (Please note: It's not a kid from our orphanage.)

In so many ways, I feel powerless when it comes to what is unfolding in Kenya. I want to be there to pray with my neighbors, to encourage them. But I'm still waiting for an OK from my directors. I know, however, that I am NOT powerless, that I can pray. And I have been.

This morning, I had a very vivid dream. In my dream, a person was urgently and emphatically saying to me,

"Ephesians 4. Tell them!"

That was all. I woke up and immediately read the chapter and prayed accordingly. Wow. God's amazing. If only we would follow His directions.

Please join me in praying this passage for Kenya. Please pray that people would be willing to surrender to God's statutes, regardless of politics, tribe or beliefs. And He, my friends, never fails us (unlike politicians or Eskom.)

Quick Update

Daniel's blog gives you a good idea of how things are going in Kenya today. There were protests today, but no riots. Seems like rains really helped calm things!

This site is VERY insightful. It shows you exactly how things are going in various parts of Kenya.

Let's keep praying for rain. :) And for long-term peace.

I am really hoping to get back to Kenya next week, but need the OK from my directors first...