Today my heart was tugged in two ways...a day filled with both desperation and inspiration.  In the morning, I did 3 home visits, led a goal setting workshop with the crew at IPI, and the afternoon was spent traveling to potential sites for IPI's next community home.  The home visits look like connecting with families that IPI sponsors, checking in on their status, health, challenges, etc and finding out how IPI can better support.  The families are eligible for support from IPI based on priority - children completely orphaned, orphaned and being cared for a by a grandparent, or living with 1 parent in a family that's been impacted by HIV.  Because there are so many people who need support IPI had to define a criteria for who they wanted to help first.  

The first family we visited today, were 4 orphaned kids whose parents died of HIV 6 and 8 years ago and have since been caring for each other and their farm.  They grow maize and beans to feed themselves, and IPI supports them with funds for education.  The second family we went to visit was a grandmother, who's caring for a 2 and 6 year old.  She's in her 70's, her daughter and mother to the 2 kids died of HIV and was never married.  The grandmother cares for the family farm with her other daughter, has no source of income and is also blind.  IPI is supporting with funding the eldest childs education.  The last family we connected with today was a single mom, who discovered she was infected with HIV when she read her husbands death certificate.  She is raising a 5 year old boy on her own and feeds her family from a small plot of land she inherited from her late husband.  Devastating -  many families are impacted with by HIV, and 80% of all new cases in kenya are married couples where the husband is contracting the virus then bringing it home and infecting the wife.  Inspiring - grass roots organizations putting their money to areas where the impact can be huge and long lasting...education.

Most of the time when you think you are 'serving', you are actually the one being served.  but today, i was able to serve through sharing goal setting with the IPI team - why people do or don't set goals, how it can impact your life, and how to do it.  It sparked inspirational conversations for us all and was good development for a team that's focus is 100% focused on developing, aiding and empowering others.  i felt super lucky to be able to share this with this team.

This afternoon we visited a site for one of IPI's next community homes - we have plans to build 5 homes total.  we were stoked to learn today that the local community has decided to donate a beautiful chunk of land to the cause.  we'll be able to build most of the home from the earth, the land is fertile so there will be plenty of space to build an amazing bio-intensive garden, and the view of mount kenya beautiful.

all in a days work.....

amani

Bio-Intensive

Today we booked ourselves into a full day workshop at the Bio Intensive Agriculture Training Center.  We spent the day getting educated, alongside some of the crew from IPI, so we could bring to practice at KACH and take the knowledge home with us.

John Jeavons from Willits California created Bio Intensive farming practices, which maximize land use and produce higher crop yields than traditional farming.  Essentially you are able to grow more food on less land and with less water and fertilizer...and preferably organic.  We trained on deep soil preparation, composting, pest and disease management, and bee keeping.  There was lots of conversation about having and creating healthy soil and how that impacts the quality of the fruits and veggies you grow, and the need for little to know pesticides.  Actually, instead of using a chemical pesticide local medicinal plants are soaked and then sprayed to ward off bugs and fungus. 

Lisa and Emanuelle from Evo Design set KACH up with plans for a bio-intensive garden on the surrounding land on site.  The combo of livestock and garden will produce enough fruits, vegetables and milk to feed the 50-80 kids in the home.  So far we've dug 24 out of 30 plots and planted 3 fruit trees.  It will be cool to return one day and see the home finished and nestled in amongst the garden.

We all got a load of value out of the day, and walked away motivated to have our own gardens.  I'm going to see if I can track down John Jeavons 'Common Ground' training center in California and keep educating myself on gardening and composting and such.  Super interesting.

Lisa's plans.

Later this evening, Lisa introduced us to her "Plans" for the garden and land that will be responsible for educating, feeding, and providing income for the children of KACH. I realized it will be a big challenge to make it all happen, but what we were doing, even if it feels small, is making a difference in helping save and change lives. So the smiles we saw today will forever stay in my heart, reminding and motivating me along the way.

Overwhelmed

Today was ....... A day of beauty and yet one of the hardest days so far, emotionally. We began the day like most days and headed to work, but the difference was today we got to meet the children. Car loads came in and i believe one car load had something like 23 people in it, and it was all children and supporting parents who came to help with the kitchen. I feel like it was a real moment for all of us as we stopped really working and started playing with the kids and now we were able to put faces to why and what we were trying to accomplish. The kids were such an inspiration as they have very, very little and yet a smile and laughter accompanied all, but they were some of the biggest and brightest smiles and all the laughs were pure joy. Its hard comparing where we live to where they live because the worlds are so different, but in these kids it was easy to realize how privilege can also lead to being spoiled.

After having lunch and smiles and laughs the group, JP, MIkey, CHad, Seth, Lisa, and Emanuelle with Michele and Karambu met up with Ripple international and explored their world a bit. Our first stop was the construction site of a hospital that they were building, and after all our hard work on a small kitchen we were shocked to see the size of the hospital, wow. It was not yet finished but was something the community needed.

 Our next stop, the infant orphanage, and my oh my, what an experience. Once again, the kids who have nothing but the minute we walked in the room and showed we wanted to play, excitement broke out, smiles and laughs were abundant. As cute and fun as the kids were, the emotions were strong as we were reminded that these children had no more family, due to AIDS. ANd some of them were found in dumpsters or just abandoned by someone who felt they could not care for them. It was especially unique as we saw the expressions on Chad and Seth's faces, as both of them are fathers of infant children, so the connection for them was strong and deep.

We finished the day at the Ripples office as they explained what there mission and future plans were. We realized how our thoughts differ greatly from theirs as, for example, in their educating of AIDS, the teach abstinence and do not educate about condoms and safe sex. 

As we pulled away from ripples and the images of the day passed through my mind, and all the problems these people face not only with AIDS, but also with starvation, lack of education, child rape, male dominance, I started to freak out a bit. I just didn't know if I could handle anymore because even though there was such beauty in the connection with the children, I knew the underlaying problems were huge. I got completely overwhelmed as the idea of trying to help seemed like it was getting so big that it was slipping out of grasp.

the women of the village also came to land a hand

KEMU students

Meeting with the KEMU students was amazing experience.  It new meaning to our trip as today's focus was more about social interaction and cultural exchange.  It's incredible to realize how people form complete different worlds and realities can sit together, talk for hours, make efforts to understand each other's situations and try to relate.  Karambu was very good at creating an environment in which everyone felt really comfortable to open up.  Tonight, I've been thinking about a term I had heard before and didn't resonate until today; "citizens of the world".

Ski movie premiere cancelled

Of course, on Seth and Chad's first day we also cut out from work early, but we had a good excuse. We were supposed to have a Poor Boyz Productions Premier of Reasons. A first on the African continent, at KEMU (Kenya Methodist University). We were pretty excited, but as things go sometimes here in Meru, none of the necessary items were in the auditorium to show a movie. At the moment when we thought it would all be canceled Karambu suggest we go in and just hang out and have a conversation with the students. In we went and introduced ourselves and gave a short spiel about who we are and what we do. It was a bit awkward, as it was apparent we had different realities.

The rest of the crew is here

Today, was pretty amazing with all sorts of stuff going on.  It was our first work day with Chad and Seth, and of course, since the slab and foundation are done, it was really easy!  Making all of our stories about how hard the work had been seem false. We have certainly moved onto a more technical aspect of the job as we are laying stones in order to build the walls. It takes a good amount of work to make sure that each stone is level and centered, so it has slowed things down a bit, or at least it has made it less physically straining.  But it sure is great having Chad and Seth around to see what everything is really like and how far we have come.

Waiting for our ride in the morning

Chad

JP became pretty good at using his arm

as a ruler on the trip

Seth