Kenyan safari with MRDF

No, not the kind involving lions – safari is Kiswahili for ‘journey’. We travelled from Jo’burg to Nairobi where we met Audrey Skervin from MRDF, with whom we were to visit some projects which MRDF help to fund. We spent a night in the Methodist Guest House and then returned to the airport to take a small plane up country to Kitale, which is near the border with Uganda. I sat next to an Oxfam worker who was going to assess the situation in the refugee camps in the far north; I didn’t envy her role as part of the Emergency Response team. The plane landed and offloaded us at Kitale, and then flew on to Lodwar with a number of others from NGOs. Kitale airport building would almost fit into our lounge and it didn’t take us long to collect our luggage. We were met by Jack Wafula, the director of SMART, a small NGO that has been working in the area for about 6 years. He took us to our lodgings for the next 3 nights – the Mid-Africa Hotel. I felt it would have been at home in a Graham Greene novel, though I was unable to tell whether any political intriguing was taking place! However, our shower and flushing toilet worked perfectly, and we appeared to be the only living creatures in our bedroom so all was fine.

It was to be the base for 3 wonderful days of learning and adventure. SMART had arranged a programme for us of 2 days of visits to self-help groups of farmers in the undeveloped West Pokot region. The Pokot tribe historically were pastoralists, but cattle rustling and drought gradually led to them settling down as farmers, growing mainly maize and beans. The cost of seeds and frequent droughts meant that they rarely had enough to eat and sometimes no food for months on end. Infant mortality from malnutrition was high, though attributed to witch-craft. Some formed self-help groups in an attempt to survive by sharing scarce resources. Then SMART came along and helped them to learn how to grow a wide variety of traditional crops in raised beds; to store food well; to harvest water and to save seeds for the next year. The condition of opting into the scheme was that they would themselves have to teach their neighbours how to do the same. Some of them were also given Value Added training in bookkeeping, marketing and cooking the foods in imaginative ways.

The difference it has made is impressive. No children are thought to have died from malnutrition in the areas served by the scheme. The land looks very fertile in comparison with the semi-arid region around, and the farmers are able to sell excess produce for enough income to send their children to school. They have gained many new skills.

We were made welcome by traditional dancing, being drawn into the dance by invitation and the giving of necklaces. At one farm we were invited in for a midday meal of goat stew, ugali (maize mash) and black nightshade (rather like spinach and very cheap to grow). Once again, we experienced the generous hospitality of people who were living near to the margins. Given that the Daily Nation was announcing that the cost of maize had risen by 84% in 12 months we could see the sense in reintroducing the traditional crops of finger millet and sorghum, which in fact are also more nutritious. The seed companies that persuaded people to almost exclusively plant maize in the 1980s have arguably had a large part to play in the cycle of poverty and hunger.

The safari was made even more entertaining by travelling in a 4x4 pickup truck (we picked a lot of people up and were 14 at one stage. Audrey wasn’t sure what MRDF would think of this.) Despite us speaking only 2 phrases in the local language we had a lot of laughter and a great time together bumping along the murram roads. They were much more enjoyable than the fume filled traffic jams that have almost paralysed life in Nairobi. A fuller account of our trip can be found on the MRDF website.

Nairobi

We flew back to Nairobi on a 29 seater and said farewell to Audrey. Back at the Methodist Guest House we encountered Andy Moffoot, the British Representative to the Kenyan Methodist Conference, due to start the next week. The Guest house is a great place to catch up with people, and we always enjoy staying there. Next, our friends Elijah and Priscilla appeared. It’s only 3 weeks since we said farewell to them in England but it seems much longer. We made plans for the next day (always a triumph of optimism over experience, making plans in Kenya) when we are due to meet with the Presiding Bishop at 10.00 but assume we will be free after about 11.00! He turned out to have much more in store for us, so after meeting members of staff at the Ministries’ Centre and learning about their hopes for raising enough money to complete this ambitious project of supporting the maintenance and outreach of the Church by means of rental from the very prestigious offices they are building, we moved on to the Nairobi campuses of KeMU (Kenyan Methodist University) which was the ambitious vision of a previous Presiding Bishop, Lawi Imathieu. He must surely praise God for the way in which his vision has been realised, for it has sites across Kenya and a good reputation. We were fortunate to hear from the Vice-Chancellor how he has Government permission to start a medical school on the Meru Campus, with Maua Methodist Hospital being used for training medics. The KeMU curriculum brochure shows that all courses are applied subjects – not for Kenya the luxury of pure maths or physics, media or film studies. Agriculture and social policy issues feature heavily, but all students take classes in theology, health studies and personal development. It was good to catch up with John Ataya, whom I first met 24 years ago when he was a student minister at the Methodist Training Institute. He is now deputy Vice-Chancellor; in fact over the week I met a number of people whom I first met in 1987, when I went to Kenya as the enabler with the British Youth Exchange. A fair number of them are Bishops (the Kenyan equivalent of District Chair) or prominent academics. Many of them will have had their schooling at least partially funded by Mission Partners. It was money well spent!

Then for something completely different we were taken to Kariorkor MC where the church, which is set in a very poor area, has a big programme of social outreach. We learnt of the work focussing on the Youth – a popular activity is a competition between the male and female youth in goat-roasting! Andy Moffoot, who accompanied us for the day, was not entirely certain it would cross cultures to his youth group. More seriously, there is an excellent programme of Bible study and small fellowship groups for different ages. MCK has experienced some of the ‘Missing Generation’ challenges that we have, and has in consequence many churches have a separate youth worship on a Sunday, and a full programme of theological and social activities that are age-specific.

The day was brought to a conclusion with afternoon tea at the PB’s home, where we were served by his lively wife Mercy. We carried forward our unrealised plans for the Masai market to Saturday. It had been a very informative day, and we were grateful for the hospitality shown to us.

Karibuni! (welcome all)

The following day we had another full day of visits, but this time to projects which are supported by the Karibuni Trust (long headed up by Rev Bill and Joy Murphy). Rev Julius Kithinji picked us up, and we drove to Tusaidie Watoto nursery school in the giant slum Kibera. We had first visited with Bishop Maureen Jones in 2000 and still have the recordings of the children singing to us. It has grown in complexity since that time, with feeding programmes for older children as well as education for pre-primary school. The social worker Makena visits the homes of the children to assess what needs they have. We were privileged to go into Kibera and spend a little time in two homes. We were accompanied by Eric, a remarkable young man who was in the nursery school in 1998 and has recently started at University having won a scholarship which makes his funding possible. Karibuni still support him by paying his monthly room rental. His parents’ home in Kibera would fit into our kitchen; his mother Elizabeth and father Charles still live there with their four daughters. Charles earns a living by mending watches, but the ubiquitous, and very cheap, mobile phones are putting him out of business – people no longer need watches. We visited another home, where a mother nursed her youngest child. The nursery can only take one child from each family – this mother has eight children and a husband who has spasmodic casual work. Again, the house is poorly built of wood and mud, and reached by a walkway that contains human waste. It is the responsibility of a landlord, to whom rent is paid. There is an illegal electricity supply in Kibera tapped off the nearby grid. Because it is so basic, there are instances of electrocution and fires frequently. Water has to be fetched in plastic containers at 3Ksh a go. (The nursery school uses about 30 a day even though it pays water rates – water pressure is so low that none arrives at their premises.) I looked hopefully for signs of the water stations featured in Christian Aid week in 2009 but there were none in this part of the slum. Yet there is a dignity about many of the people, and a hope that things will one day be better. Certainly, it does seem to have improved slightly since 2000.

Moving on, we also visited the work at Kawangware – the church that pulled down its building to build a school, continuing to worship in a makeshift hall. It serves an area of great poverty, but we were served a delicious lunch of rice and stew which 3 women had prepared for us. By this time we were an hour behind schedule and Julius was anxious. We needed to be back by 4.30 for another meeting with the PB and Julius had a service to lead!

Nevertheless, we made time to call in at Oases Academy, run by Judith (an ex TDO colleague) and her husband Josh. They have just put up new buildings on a bigger plot of land and we wanted to see how things were progressing. Even though it was school holidays, some of the teachers and children had gathered to meet with us, and we were able to give them some stationery. The very clean pit latrine provided a welcome comfort stop too! They have needed to start a feeding programme, for though the drought and famine is most acute in the north of Kenya, there is also hunger in the slums communities. Josh is making up food parcels to distribute. For more info go to www.oasescommunitycentre.com

By this time we had pretty much abandoned our timetable and Julius was

determined that we should visit Embakasi, where the Methodist Church serves a slum fairly near the airport. The trouble is, what should in theory be a 20 minute journey in Nairobi almost al

ways takes an hour. Or more. But Embakasi folks were expecting us – indeed, they had prepared a ‘few snacks’ which would have quite easily fed 3 times our number. After we had eaten, we were shown their new water tank and toilet block, provided with the help of the Karibuni Trust. They are building a new church too, as funds permit. In the most difficult of conditions, we have seen with our own eyes how Methodists are wor

king out their faith. It is very humbling. You can learn more about the work supported by the Karibuni Trust on www.karibuni.org.uk .

We turned up at the PB’s office 30 minutes late for a second scheduled meeting. Also wearing the clothes put on that morning for visiting the poorer parts of the city. My trainers, in which I ran 10K to raise money for MRDF are now red with the soil of West Pokot and further coloured by the walkways in the slums. The PB doesn’t mind – we have been ‘field-workers’ today. And we have been encouraged to learn how the gospel is being lived out by our brothers and sisters in Christ in Kenya. Not only mission alongside the poor, but evangelism in new territories, replacing the fear which arises out of some of the traditional beliefs and practices with the trust and confidence of the Christian life. Kwaheri – we will surely return.

Ruby the flexible, the valiant

Well...Ruby's vice-presidential year may well have prepared her for the long hours, the swift movement from one group of individuals to the next, the speeches, the gift ceremonies, and the cheek-aching smiling that has filled her colourful 3 days in the rural areas of NW Cameroon. But we have also subjected her to dancing and pompom waving as the communities showed their appreciation of her visit; to torrential rain and slippery slopes as she clambered up to see people's compounds and down to see people's vegetable gardens; to cross rickety bridges while people on all sides took her photograph and to pitch black roads leading to the only open watering hole after a 12 hour day in the field. And she has met it all with good grace and energy, interviewing community members and being bear-hugged to their chests, looking at their carrots with genuine interest and really making them feel appreciated and alongside them. They are all waiting for her return trip! (written by Kirsty Smith, MRDF Director)

More tales from Cameroon

I am absolutely exhilerated. It could be the singing, the dancing, the food, the Coca Cola, the 95 speeches, the dignatories, the International Nation Builders choir, the representatives of our two partner organisations CDVTA and PTRC (Presbyterian Rural Training Centre), the inspiration of Kirsty and Isabelle and their work with MRDF, the many gifts - all of this at a special event this evening held in our honour and the honour of all those people who make donations to MRDF. What a night!

And what a couple of days. Yesterday I visited many elderly people's clubs and gardens. Had lunch at the Palace of one Fon (Chief) and sat as an honoured guest at the gathering with dignatories including government officials, traditional and religious leaders and hundreds of elderly people at the even bigger palace of another Fon, heard and made speeches and travelled back along the dusty, bumpy roads to the safety of the Baptist Convention centre. Where the electricity was on and the water was also running - what luxury.

Today we have not been so fortunate with the water - although there was some pretty heavy rain this afternoon and it does make you wish you had carried some shower gel! Still today Kirsty and I went out in the field to the Ndop area with PRTC whilst Isabelle stayed in Bamenda to check on the records of CDVTA (well that was her story anyway). First of all we visited the Unity Women's Mixed Farming Group who come together to support each other in their efforts to farm the local land. In the house where they met (which never has water or electricity), I was able to ask them about village life, husbands, children, festivities and wakes whilst Kirsty went to visit the group farm. They had bought this land with a loan from PRTC. It was a very interesting time and the women thought it was very funny that I had a husband called Gari - the name of a foodstuff made from Kesava plants which they sold at the market. Agnes, their chair, features on an MRDF poster part of the 2007 Harvest pack. What fun the women and lots of local children had when Kirsty presented Agnes with a copy of it.

Our second visit was to the Meghanty women's group in Babungo, where we heard again of the differences made to people's lives by the training they had received in crop management and bookkeeping skills. We were leaving here when we bumped into Emmanuel - an honorary member of this women's group who has done a lot of training with PRTC and now has a well stocked farm which includes bees and medicinal plants as well as the usual cabbages and beans etc. Our next visit was to see a lady called Elizabeth in Ndop who we expected to meet on her own. She had been visited by MRDF before and supporters may remember her from their literature. However as we entered the place where Elizabeth lived we found thirty or so Farmers' representatives from the area as well. After singing and prayers and introductory speeches, Kirsty took Elizabeth outside to interview her whilst I ended up chairing a farmers' meeting. What a varied life I lead!

Then back tonight for the festivities. Fantastic. Tonight we have electricity but no water still so am able to send this blog but you can be grateful you are not close enough to pick up our scent. An early start tomorrow as we set off to travel to Douala for our overnight flight home. There is much more to tell but that will have to wait for now. No doubt there will be some stuff in the Methodist Recorder and the MRDF literature and maybe even another Blog entry. Remember us in your prayers as we travel home tired but rejoicing.

Day 1 of field trip in Cameroon

These last two days have been spent on a field visit around the Momo district in the North West province of Cameroon. This posting takes you up to this morning - access to the internet and to mobile phone was absent during these two days so this will all be coming in instalments!

We were picked up yesterday morning by Barnabus, our driver from the Presbyterian Church, at 7.45 and moved out into the rural countryside on track roads through settlements and past markets until at 10.30 we reached an area called Fum within the great sprawling village of Oshie, Although called a village it does not indicate that this is a gathered community – far from it! We left the car at the side of the road and began the climb up the hills to visit one of the "club" gardens. CDVTA (Community Development Volunteers for Technical Assistance), the MRDF partner we were visiting, particularly works with elderly people in these areas. A walk to share a drink with a neighbour is likely to be a two hour journey on foot so elderly people get particularly isolated. CDVTA have set up clubs for the old people to gather, usually once a week to share stories and concerns and food, with singing and a whole range of activities. One popular development is the club gardens where the elderly people share a garden which they tend and where they grow vegetables. Going to the garden provides some purpose for the day and offers further opportunities to meet people. I only wish I was as fit now as many of these people are in their 70's, 80's and beyond. Where they have club members who can no longer attend because of age and/or bad health, other club members are encouraged to visit them as well as the field officers of CDVTA. The CDVTA staff and volunteers do things such as trimming the nails of the people who can't get out when they do their home visits and these things are really important. Goat plans and bee hives are other bits of important work.

During the day we visited a number of club gardens on the hillsides and visited Fum and Bachaza club meetings where I got to join in the singing and dancing as well as visiting the garden where a number of elderly women were hard at work. We also linked in to a number of home visits. (Kirsty and Isabelle did more of these while I was singing and dancing!) I was honoured to visit the home of a woman who belonged to the Bachaza club who told us of the importance of the club to her, even though she was less able to visit now that she was blind. She blessed us with a traditional blessing, blowing into our hands which we had to hold to our hearts. I truly felt blessed to have met her. One of the garden visits was to a medicinal garden where one club member from Bemban showed us a number of herbs and plants and spoke to us of their medicinal powers. Peter was in his eighties and very sprightly indeed so you felt that the herbs were definitely helping. We next visited another man called Peter who lived up a real scramble on the hill. He was over 100 years old and sadly had not been able to leave his compound for 23 years. He told us how he felt that God had forgotten him and was ready to die. Two of his sons had already died and the other one had moved to Nigeria many years ago and he had not heard from him – fearing that he too had died. However he did say how good it was to belong to the club, whilst suggesting that people could visit him more often! It was very moving when he said that he had heard we were to visit the area and that if we had not gone to see him he would have felt his life was totally over and useless.

After a visit to another farm/garden we went to meet a whole lot of older people from the area who had come together near to where we were to stay the night. Hundreds had turned up who would have had to walk for hours to get there. The older people performed a number of traditional dances and there were speeches and prayers. A truly spectacular end to the day. We had been invited to stay at the house of one of the field staff, Alahjah, who is a devout Muslim. It felt a generous act for me to be asked to pray before we ate and he asked that I include his family in the prayers. Blessings galore and evidence of not a few small miracles enabled by donations to MRDF and the work of the local people.

In the dark in Cameroon

This page is being written on behalf of Ruby, Kirsty and Isabelle who are on an MRDF visit to Cameroon...... Ruby flew to Cameroon yesterday (via Brussels) and has today joined the others in Bamenda following a six hour drive from Buea. There was a splendid welcome with banners and singing and there is much to report. However, as they began to write this blog entry there was a big thunderstorm and the electricity went off! - hence this short update is being dictated by Ruby over the phone and typed by Garry back in the UK.... watch out for more exciting (and informative!) inputs in days to come.

Coughing and spluttering

I am writing this sitting in my dressing gown having spent yesterday in bed. After CLT on Wednesday I went into work and by Thursday wasn't feeling great but put it down to some of the pressures there. A splitting headache meant I cried off from going to the Tony Blair lecture which I had been looking forward to. Just to add to the general fed up feeling I went to the tube station and found that the Jubilee line was not running due to power cuts. I had to find an alternative route along with hundreds of others, pushing our way onto trains that were already full to bursting.
By later in the evening the sneezing was in full flow and I rang David Perkins in the Isle of Man to suggest I waited unti today to join them. He listened to my voice and said "Don't come at all!" I didn't take it personally and he was obviously right as I don't think I would have been able to do very much. I am now taking various cold remedies and being waited on hand and foot by my husband. Every cloud...............
Am hoping to be well enough to set off at the crack of dawn on Monday to Cameroon to visit some MRDF projects. Am praying for the people in the Isle of Man and for a return to health.

Questions and Answers

This week I was part of a panel for a recording of "Burning Questions" for Premier radio. Rob Frost asked me to be involved some months ago and he had been planned to chair the panels. John Pantry did a great job standing in at St Mary's Church, Walthamstowe. The programme's a bit like Question time where all of the panellists are invited to bring a Christian perspective to the topics of the day. These ranged from whether Tony Blair should have been more "up front" in talking about his faith to whether Desmond Tutu was right in saying that the Anglican Church is too obsessed with sexuality with other questions such as whether the rules on giving to Political parties are transparent enough and whether we would be surprised to find one of our neighbours living alone had fallen ill and died because no-one was being a good neighbour. The other people on the panel were all really interesting - Stephen Timms MP, Joel Edwards, Jonathan Oloyede, Matt Summerfield and Alan Craig. See http://www.premier.org.uk/engine.cfm?i=1212 to read more about them. I really enjoyed it but forgot that it was being recorded so probably sound awful!

On Wednesday I was able to spend a little time with 5 Methodists from the Birmingham District - Nicola, Margaret, Dane, Elixabeth and David who had come to the House of Commons to lobby their MPs about the situation in Palestine. They brought me a carved "guardian angel" from Palestine and left me after a cup of tea to get involved with their real business which they all care passionately about. I met a couple of other Methodists that day who were in for the same reason. We keep the situation in the Middle East in our prayers.

It was good to have Martyn back and to see him briefly at the tea party I hosted at the House of Commons for MRDF on Thursday. The photo above shows Kirsty Smith, the Director of MRDF with MPs Meg Munn and Hilary Armstrong and myself. Alan Beith MP was there as well and Lords Griffiths and Walton and lots of invited guests and supporters. Brian Caveney, the Youth President was there on his first official visit. Kirsty began her presentation by sharing some of the questions people ask about the Methodist Relief and Development Fund - why, why, why..? she shared some great stories, answered the questions of why? and then challenged us to ask ourselves and others - why not MRDF to support in the work of small miracles. Hilary Armstrong told us of how much difference her two years on VSO had made to her as a young woman and the importance of development, lending her support to the work of MRDF. I think that people enjoyed the opportunity to come to the House of Commons and the tea - sponsored by Methodist Insurance- and most of all to learn more of and give thanks for the work of MRDF. http://www.mrdf.org.uk/pages/home.php