Kaptagat

As always, I am having trouble figuring out where to start. It’s hard to write every 2 weeks and be able to relay all that has been going on. We are currently staying at the Flamingo Hills Tent Camp near Lake Nakuru. We slept here last night and will sleep here again tonight before leaving for Mukaa tomorrow morning. The break was much needed but it’s a little odd to be in a resort/vacation area after living here for 2 months with the kids. I don’t think any of us are fans. It just doesn’t feel right, and we are really missing everyone we have met.
So we just finished our 2 weeks at Kaptagat Children’s Home. It was awesome. The home is located on the mountainside with a river running through it. The environment is beautiful (as always…I know I say that at every home but it’s true. This country is amazing and so diverse). The home is about the same size as Ogada—there are currently 36 kids living at the home and 6 staff members. The staff is incredible—they are extremely short handed but they work hard and cover all the jobs of the home. We really enjoyed getting to know them—it’s funny, I think it was harder for each of us to say goodbye to the workers than to the kids. We loved the kids and had a lot of fun with them but they were a much younger group and communication was a bit difficult. The conversations did not run as deep as they did at Ogada and at first that was really frustrating to us. We felt like failures and didn’t know why we were having trouble connecting on that level. Then we realized that maybe God’s plan for Kaptagat
Children’s Home was not for us to have deep, heart to heart conversations with the kids—maybe the kids at Kaptagat just needed someone to play with, to laugh with, to have fun with…maybe we were simply to show these children love in that way. Like I said, the staff is amazing and I think the children receive a lot of emotional support from them—so we took comfort in the fact that maybe we weren’t the ones to go to that level with the kids. A few days after we started to think about everything in that way, we also realized that maybe this was not only God’s plan for Kaptagat Children’s Home, but it was his plan for us too. I don’t think it was any accident that a place like Kaptagat came after a place like Ogada. Being at Ogada was an emotionally draining experience for us. Although we were preparing ourselves to find the same heartache at Kaptagat, I’m really not sure that that would’ve been a healthy experience for anyone. I believe that God was in the plans of this trip…that we would go to a fun home like Kaptagat and have an amazing time just playing with the children there after having such a rich but taxing time at Ogada. Pastor Ego preached on the passage about Martha and Mary the Sunday before we left…and it was that morning where we had discussed God’s purpose in us being there at Kaptagat…and it was so neat to realize that we were so caught up in being “Martha” (in making sure we got what we needed to do done and in attempting to fulfill our idea of “success” at a home) that we almost mistook being “Mary” as failing. I don’t know if that makes sense how I worded it but I think you can figure it out.
I think the hardest part of Kaptagat for us was the long days. We would wake up at 5:40 and be down at the dining hall to lead kid devotions at 6. We would then return to our house and get ready for the day and head back down at 7:15 for chai and staff devotions. The day would pretty much be straight through until 9 pm when the kids went to bed…and we were more than happy to make that our bedtime as well. During the day while the kids were at school we would help out around the compound, either cutting vegetables and doing dishes in the kitchen, weeding in the shamba, or sweeping and mopping in the kids’ dorms. It felt good to be able to help at a home that desperately needs the extra hands. I’d like to briefly tell you all about the staff from this home. As I already said, we got very close to them. We spent so much time sitting and talking with them or working alongside of them or leading/attending their devotions that we started to make some real connections. We discussed a lot of issues that are not only important but things that we were all interested in and generally had a strong viewpoint on. It is overwhelmingly clear that the staff at this home are not there because it is a job. To them, it is so much more and it was such a blessing to see that shine in this home. God is at work here and it was fun to be a part of that if even for a short while. Everyone lives on the home’s compound which adds a neat dynamic and unity to the home. It really is like one big family and the way that the staff integrates and interacts with the kids is definitely unique. I really don’t have words to capture just what kind of relationship it is. All I can say on it is that I think the kids are in really good hands. I don’t really worry about how they will be cared for or the examples that they have before them as they grow up.
During our stay at Kaptagat, we were able to see a lot of the surrounding area. It was such a blessing to be able to get off of the compound and walk around a bit…the only unfortunate part was that the “5K” walks that sounded so doable weren’t exactly 5K…I think some were reaching a bit beyond 10K. The first Saturday we were there the kids took us on a walk to see the forest and the monkeys. They were so excited. I went into the dining hall to tell Crystal that we were leaving and Pastor Ego (the manager) asked me who was leading, where we were going, when we would be back, etc…I had no idea so he asked me to bring him the team leader. So I go and get Nelson (nicknamed Mandela), a 14 year old boy in class 7, and tell him he’s team leader. Pastor starts to tell Nelson, in English, what time we had to be back…he then proceeds to give him strict instructions on boundaries—where we are and aren’t allowed to go…that part was in Kiswahili. Thank goodness because then I couldn’t feel guilty as 40 minutes later we were crawling under bushes and over big tree roots as we were running through what felt like the African jungle. We arrived back late, which I could be reprimanded for, but other than that, I could claim ignorance. Another day we went on home visits with Cosmas (the social worker) and Samson (the accountant). That was the first of the “5k” walks that turned into being a 5 hour journey. It was fun though…until the end when nothing seemed too fun anymore. But we got to see a lot of the area and several of the surrounding primary schools. At one of the schools we sang a song called the hippo song for them…the reaction we got was hilarious. Priceless…and it’s videotaped. So that will have to be shown when we return. On Sunday afternoon we went on another walk lead by Cosmas and Samson…true to form, it was not 5K…it took 5 hours once again. But all the kids came along with us on that one so it was really enjoyable. I loved it. I walked for most of the time with a little boy named Amos. He cracked me up. As we were walking hand in hand, he starts to point out trees to me and say, “this is pine. this is bottle tree. This is acacia. This is blue gum.” And it just made me laugh because he sounds just like someone else I know…not mentioning any names…
When the kids were home from school either in the evenings or on the weekends, they played a lot of football (soccer)—and I LOVED playing with them. It was so much fun. We also had some spontaneous dance parties, dance competitions, game nights, and coloring sessions. It was just an all around fun home to be at. On the 21st of July, it was Ashley’s birthday. In Kenya, birthdays are not celebrated with parties…they are barely even acknowledged. Many Africans aren’t even able to tell you what their birthday is. Unfortunately, Ashley is one of the most enthusiastic birthday girls I have ever met…she doesn’t just celebrate her birth “day” but she likes to celebrate what she calls birthday week. So we decide that we will fund a party for her. I went into town with one of the staff members the days before so that I could get cake and snacks for it. So the day of the party comes…and I’m in the kitchen trying to figure out how to cut the cake and Cosmas comes in and asks if I have a plan for the party. I say no but that I think it will work out and we can plan as we go. We reaches in his jacket pocket and pulls out a typed up itinerary including 15 different items…one of which was “the purpose/objective” done by Lauren. So during the party I got to give a speech on the purpose and objective of a birthday party. The whole party was so sweet and they really went all out. They even decorated the dining hall using their bed sheets as window coverings and their blankets as table cloths. It was such a fun afternoon and I think the kids all really enjoyed it…the staff too—Eliab (the night watchman + about 13 other jobs) asked if I would be celebrating mine with them as well. The last night that we were at the home, we set up a projector that we have been hauling around with us for 2 months and not using and hooked up my camera to it. We had a slide show of all the pictures taken since we had arrived. It was so much fun and the kids loved it…we should have been doing that all along.
God has been doing a lot in all of our lives since coming to Kenya and it has been awesome to see the changes in each one of us. I know all of us have grown in many ways and one thing that we’ve all grown in is seeing and recognizing God in everyday life. We call them “yay God” moments—when something happens or works out perfectly and all you can do is realize that God’s hand was in it from the start…they are occurring all the time now. And we know that God didn’t just start that recently…he has been doing it all along but we are finally becoming aware of it and perceptive to it. Ashley, Jessica, and I left Kaptagat on Tuesday morning and drove up to Ogada to pick up Tim and Mary who had been staying there for the past week. It was such a sweet reunion to go back and return to all the people we love there, but it was again hard to leave. However, I wouldn’t change having that opportunity. I think that although it was bittersweet, it tied up a lot of loose ends and just reaffirmed in everyones’ minds that what happened those 2 weeks there was a gift from God and that the friendships made could last a lifetime. So we leave tomorrow morning for Mukaa, our last home. It’s crazy how fast the summer went. There have been times when we’re homesick and there have been times when we want to stay here forever. God is working in this country and in these children’s homes. It has been such a blessing so far to be a part of that. We are humbled that God has allowed us to be involved in each of these children’s and staff’s lives. Please continue to pray! There should be one more update before we fly home on August 17th.

Oh and a specific prayer request—Pray for Kenya. They vote for a new referendum and some changes in their constitution on August 4th I believe. A lot of big issues are being dealt with…so pray for the people to have wisdom and discernment