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Journal Letter #351 6 January 2007
After arriving Saturday night without luggage, we
discovered the next British Airways flight would be Sunday night at the same
time. The customer service people encouraged us to come and see if our
luggage would come in on that flight.
Sunday night Stephan Shelburne, who had come from Mbale to collect us, and I
got into our truck and drove from Westlands (opposite side of town) to the
airport at 9:15 PM. The good thing about this trip was that most of the
traffic had left the city and roads were easily traversed. The bad thing
about this time of day is that there is a greater chance of crime and less
help for breakdowns. Still we made it to the airport just as the bags were
coming out. We went through a side door and security before entering the
arrival area and the baggage carousel. I explained (and half complained)
that I had lost luggage and was returning to see if they came in. Evidently
the airport security is familiar with this routine because they gave me no
hassle. They let Stephan in to help me even though he had not flown and was
not missing luggage.
We watched the bags come in and circle and slowly realized that our bags
would not arrive that night either. What we discovered was an additional 25
passengers who also learned that their bags did not come. The problem
seemed to be growing. We also learned that British Airways conducted
morning flights on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays in addition to night
flights every day of the week. So we could return in the morning to catch
another chance.
Monday morning we braved traffic to the airport, though there was very
little since it was New Year’s Day. What a way to spend New Year’s Day –
looking for lost luggage! The morning flight had just landed when we got
there. We didn’t have to wait long before the first bags came out. We
noted that first class and business class travelers were already coming down
the stairs. It made Stephan and I wonder if first class people ever lost
their luggage. (Perhaps if you have flown first class and lost luggage you
can let me know.) Otherwise, I am going to assume it doesn’t happen very
often. The bags came in and the people collected their luggage. We
remained without a single trunk. We did notice another 13 passengers
missing luggage. We could understand how they felt. I decided to talk with
the manager of British Airways customer service. She checked on my luggage
and discovered that two had been found in Newark, New Jersey and that they
were scheduled to arrive on the Monday night flight. She could not
determine the location of the other 7 trunks since London had experienced a
system-wide failure. They were unable to track luggage or inform Nairobi
where or when lost luggage would arrive. Basically the Nairobi people were
told to stop calling and asking for lost luggage. They would get to it as
soon as possible.
With some hope in our hearts, Stephan and I returned to the airport Monday
night but with a twist. I forgot to take my papers showing my lost luggage
report. Also, I only had a Ugandan driver’s license as identification. The
airport security would not let either of us in because we did not have
proper paperwork. I stood and argued with them for about ten minutes making
them laugh by my complaints of lost luggage. They directed me to airport
security where I was told to get some kind of documentation from British
Airways customer service to prove I had filed a report. The BA office
printed out a report of the trunks I was missing, so with that and my
driver’s license, I was able to get into the airport to look for my
luggage. For some reason they even let Stephan in who had no paperwork. By
the time we got there we found people were already collecting their luggage
from the carousel. We walked through the old luggage sitting on the floor,
inspected the carousel, and then found our favorite spot by the back wall
behind a wire cage of lost luggage. From that vantage point, we could
observe the baggage handlers x-raying the luggage before it was put on the
carousel. This gave us a first hand look at what would come through on the
carousel. As we watched the bags we observed that the average British
Airways flight used about 8-9 square, metal luggage containers that came in
on wheels. We became proficient in determining if we were almost through or
not. We watched with anticipation as all the containers were unloaded. We
found nothing for us. Another 9 passengers were stranded like us without
luggage. Speaking to the lost luggage people we discovered that British
Airways was sending a short fax for each flight of passengers who would not
receive their bags. The average was 9-13 passengers. The personnel already
knew how many people would be standing at their counter when the carousel
was turned off. That was a difficult job to have.
During Monday lunch time we sent an email to Kirk Hayes and our parents
letting them know about our lost luggage situation. By Tuesday lunch we
were struggling with how long we should wait in Nairobi. It was clear that
the Nairobi personnel could not tell us where or when the trunks would
arrive. It could be tomorrow, or it could be weeks, even months. Everyone
we talked to had horror stories of lost luggage that ended up back in
America or showing up months later or was lost completely. We needed to
decide when it was time to stop sitting in Nairobi and get on with our lives
– with or without our trunks. We sent another email saying we would stay in
Nairobi until Thursday morning. That would give us three more chances
(Tuesday night and two flights on Wednesday) to find our trunks.
Kirk called me later Tuesday afternoon with news that he and Nellie Langford
had discovered that British Airways had indeed suffered a system wide
failure. It was estimated that more than 100,000 pieces of luggage were
stranded at Heathrow airport in London awaiting identification to be sent on
to their destinations. This news further deflated our hopes of getting our
trunks soon. We figured the two trunks found in Newark may have entered
into this pool of luggage and that was why they had not come in Monday
night. Nothing would be sent expeditiously.
Tuesday night found us back at the airport again waiting for the flight to
arrive. The passengers came in and collected their luggage. Still we found
nothing for us. Only a few women stood at the lost luggage desk this time.
The fewer number actually looked like an improvement to us. We returned
home feeling like there was little hope of our trunks coming before we would
leave. We began to prepare ourselves for traveling back home with less than
we left with.
Wednesday morning Stephan, Natalie and I drove back to the airport. The
traffic was heavy since it was a regular working day after the New Year’s
Day celebrations. It took us a little longer than usual, but Stephan
negotiated the round-abouts well. The Wednesday morning security allowed
Stephan and me into the carousel area, but Natalie hung around the reception
area while we hunted for luggage. It is difficult to describe the amount of
hope that swells up inside and the prayers lifted up as luggage continues to
come out. In fact, since we realized the trunks were lost, we had solicited
prayers from many who were praying for their safe arrival. Our hopes were
dashed again as the luggage finished and a few passengers began to ask what
they needed to do. We left the carousel area and returned to the British
Airways customer service office. There I made sure they had my home address
and telephone numbers. I also collected their office number and the office
number for the Entebbe airport. I told them I was leaving the next morning
and encouraged them to send any luggage on if we did not find it on the
Wednesday night flight. This seemed the best we could do before we left
Nairobi. We stopped for a moment and drank a soda at the road side café at
the airport before returning home. Linda was having her hair cut during our
morning excursion.
We did not have much hope during our Wednesday night drive out to the
airport. Yet, Stephan and I didn’t feel it right to miss the only other
opportunity for our trunks to arrive before we left. So, we made our now
familiar trip to the airport and passed through security. We were becoming
well known by the airport personnel. We arrived a little before the flight
and found the luggage area full of people. A KLM flight and a Kenya Airways
flight had come in so many of the carousels were busy. We discovered that
the British Airways flight would send their luggage through the carousel on
the far end of the reception area. We took our place by the back wall and
started watching the luggage being unloaded and x-rayed. Nine metal
containers of luggage rolled in and were sent through. None of our trunks
came. The workers sat down in the back, and we called out to ask if they
were through. One said, “No. There are three more.” Those three came and
were unloaded. No trunks. But before those were finished more containers
arrived. Stephan and I calculated that at least 50% more luggage came in on
this flight than the previous six flights. Perhaps BA was trying to catch
up on lost luggage. The third to the last container was being unloaded when
Stephan spotted a green trunk. He asked me if we had a green trunk, and I
said yes. As it came through we realized it was truly one of ours. We
unloaded it with great joy. Our hope swelled. A second trunk followed
shortly. Then nothing else came. Stephan and I were excited to get
something after all those trips. We surmised that these two were the trunks
the manager of British Airways had told us were supposed to come in on
Monday night. We figured the other 7 trunks still had not been located.
Still we were reluctant to leave early. That container emptied, then the
next without another trunk. In the last container on the last flight, we
saw our last seven trunks come through. Without notice or expectation, we
found our luggage had arrived safely and that we would have no need to
return home empty-handed after all. I cannot help but give credit to the
numerous saints who lifted up our needs in prayer. And finally, let’s give
praise to the Lord who somehow moved our trunks through 100,000 pieces of
luggage in Heathrow to Nairobi in time for us to go home with them. Praise
the Lord.
Journal Letter #352 7 January 2007
David J. Smith, in his book If the World Were a Village, tries to break down big numbers which are hard to understand by creating an imaginary village of only 100 people. In this scenario, each person in the village would represent 62 million people from the real world. David Smith hopes this simplification will help his readers grasp the global proportions currently existing in the world. Here are some of his findings:
Of the 100 people in the global village 61 are from Asia, 13 from Africa, 12 from Europe, 8 from South America (including Mexico), 5 from Canada and the United States, and 1 from Oceania (including Australia, New Zealand, and all the islands of the Pacific).
In the global village there are almost 6000 languages, but more than half of the people speak only 8 languages. This division means 22 speak Chinese; 9 speak English; 8 speak Hindi; 7 speak Spanish; 4 speak Arabic; 4 speak Bengali; 3 speak Portuguese; and 3 speak Russian.
The ages of the 100 villagers would divide as follows: 10 under 5 years old; 10 are between 5 and 9; 19 are between 10 and 19; 16 are between 20 and 29; 15 are between 30 and 39; 11 are between 40 and 49; 9 are between 50 and 59; 6 are between 60 and 69; 3 are between 70 and 79; and only one is 80 or above.
Religiously, our village would have: 32 Christians; 19 Muslims; 13 Hindus; 12 Animists or folk religions; 6 Buddhists; 2 would represent Bahai, Confucianism, and Shintoism; and 1 would be Jewish. About 15 are non-religious.
Though the village currently produces enough food to feed all 100 people, it is not evenly distributed and available to all. This means only 30 people always have enough food to eat. 50 villagers do not have a reliable source of food and are hungry some or all of the time. 20 people are severely undernourished.
Considering air, water, and sanitation, the village has a lot of improvement to make. 75 people have access to safe water within a short distance of where they live. 25 spend a lot of each day looking for water. Much of this searching is done by women and girls. 60 villagers have adequate sanitation, 40 do not. 62 villagers breathe relatively clean air. 32 villagers breathe air that is unhealthy due to pollution.
For education and literacy, only 38 of the people in the village are school aged (5-24 years old). Of these 38 only 31 attend school. There is only one teacher for them. Of the 88 villagers old enough to read, only 71 can read a little while 17 cannot read at all. More males than females can read and write.
If all the money were divided equally among the 100 villagers, then each would have $6200 per year. However, the village’s money is not divided equally. This means the top 20 people have more than $9,000 per year while the poorest 20 people have less than $1 a day. The other 60 people in the village have something in between these two extremes.
Electricity reaches only 76 people in the village. 24 do not have access to it. In the global village most people use electricity only for light. Of the 100 villagers, only 42 have a radio. Only 24 of 100 have a TV. 30 of 100 villagers have a phone (including cell phones), and only 10 of 100 have a computer.
In another unique book called Material World: A Global Family Portrait by Peter Menzel, I found some interesting statistics that are not normally given.
For example, the percentage of income used to purchase food for countries around the world compare places like America (13%) and Germany (12%) and Japan (16%) to poorer countries which use much more of their money to eat like India (52%), Mali (57%), West Samoa (59%), and China (61%).
Daily caloric intake according to the minimum daily requirement also shows some surprising results. America consumes 137% of the minimum daily requirement (MDR). However we are not the worst in excess. Bosnia surprisingly consumes 140% and Spain 141% top out the list. Other surprises include Argentina 131%, Cuba 135%, and Iceland 134%. The lowest consumptions recorded were Ethiopia 73%, Haiti 89%, Mail 96%, and Mongolia 97%.
Educationally, the mean number of years of education for people over 25 years of age range from the highest which include America 12.4, U.K. 11.6, and Japan 10.6. The lowest averages of education are Bhutan 0.1, Mail 0.1, Ethiopia 0.7, India 1.2, and Haiti 1.3 years.
Trained armies for each country vary widely. The smallest armies in the world include Mali (7,300), Haiti (7,400), and Mongolia (15,500). The largest armies include China (3 million), U.S. (1.9 million), India (1.2 million), and surprisingly Vietnam (1.1 million).
One final unusual statistic reflects the population density. This column shows the number of people per square kilometer. The countries with the lowest density include Mongolia (1.6 people), Iceland (2.5), Mali (8.7), and Argentina (12.3). The countries with the highest density include Japan (333.1), Israel (290.3), India (283.2), and Haiti (257.1).
Such statistics help me put my blessings in life into a global perspective.
Journal Letter #353 12 April 2007
It has been a long time since I wrote a journal letter. Part of this is due to a lack of discipline. Part of it is due to my having written about so many things already making it hard to come up with new things. Part of it is due to the fact that I need to have motivation and opportunity come together at the same time. It doesn’t always.
Life has changed slightly since our furlough. We left our son Noah in America to attend university. He began schooling at Lubbock Christian University and living in the dorm then determined mid-term that he didn’t want to be in Lubbock. We helped him move to Fort Worth near our parents and family to get a job and attend a local community college. He has since decided that Lubbock was not as bad as he thought and is planning on returning to Lubbock in May to work through the summer and enroll in fall classes. My parents have cared for him and watched him struggle with American cultural re-entry. Perhaps it might be more accurate to say “entry” in the sense that Noah has never really lived in America long term. The stress of being away from his nuclear family, learning to live and drive in America, university studies, and finding a church home have all been obstacles to overcome. He is working through things and my mom said last night by phone that they can see Noah making good progress. We hurt for him and wish we were closer to help him through stuff, but I am sure God can use this time to draw Noah closer to him.
Natalie was attending Rift Valley Academy last year but decided to return to our small home-school in Mbale for her 9th grade year. She tells me she misses RVA and notes that her friends have changed more than she had expected. Natalie may complete here 9th and 10th grade classes here in Mbale and then return to RVA to finish out her high school experience. Otherwise, Natalie is having fun being at home. Her social life is busy. Her room stays clean most of the time, and we never know what kind of outfit she will be wearing each day. Her experimentation with clothes, finger nail polish, and hair styles keep us jumping. She definitely does not have conservative fashion tastes.
Linda continues to participate in a weekly Thursday afternoon Bible study. Her group is working through the Patriarchs – a Beth Moore series. Linda also is working with Noeli Luchivya to develop some self study Bible lessons for the women’s ministry. She edits and does design work for the Mkristo each month, and she is learning to financial status of the children’s home with a plan to begin overseeing that in a few months. She keeps busy with developing team calendars, school calendars, and serves on the committee for the university development and AIDS orphans’ program. In her spare time she keeps the house running and prepares delicious meals from scratch.
Linda and I returned to Mbale with plans to redo some of our house. We put in floor tiles within the first few weeks but stalled out on further repairs. We need to put in new kitchen cabinets, buy a new stove (our current one has sent flames out the back twice in the last month), and do some painting. But we keep so busy it is hard to fit in house activities. We try to listen to music more and watch less TV. We try to keep up with email, read more, and take things out of our social schedule. We have had fewer guests in our house since January, and that makes evenings easier, but we feel less connected with friends and teammates. It is hard to strike a balance.
Work has been full since our return. We purchased a plot of ground in town adjacent to land we already owned. That gave us a complete block of land including the church building and a future site for dormitories (what we are currently calling our conference center). We began renovations on the conference center at the end of January about the same time we began work on a new center for Good News Productions International. We currently have two construction projects going on around us in town. To add to that, we are trying to build a clinic in Nimule, Sudan that will be the future house for SEE Ministries (optical) and FAME (dental). That building is ready to start putting trusses up for the roof and should be enclosed within the next month. All the buildings take a lot of attention with myriad details to sort out and decide upon.
Tom and Julie Varno and their kids Melissa and Jeremy came for two months to oversee the two projects in Mbale and Josh Shelburne came to oversee the project in Nimule. Their presence has been a wonderful help to keep us from being buried under with construction needs. Tom has worked amazingly fast to bring the GNPI building to near completion on the outside and almost ready to paint on the inside. Josh is braving the harsh living conditions of Sudan to oversee some rapid work in Nimule. I would assess the work in Nimule and Mbale as being ahead of expected schedules at this writing. This is wonderful news and surely costs us less money in that rapid progress means less money for labor.
I have spent more time in the town church since our return. We have worked together with teammates to come up with a series of Sunday morning lessons that lends structure and direction to the worship service. We have changed a few things around in the service that contributes to a more cohesive worship. We still need to work on the singing ministry and figure out how best to use our new speaker system. Overall things are looking up. We have seen the youth program start up again. We currently run about 20 young men and women on Friday afternoons at 5:00 PM. They are still stand-offish a little, but we are making progress in building friendships. The women’s group seems to be going well. They are currently digging on some of our town plots with plans to plant food for the church. They have agreed to take one third of the produce for the women who work the fields, give one third to the widows in the church, and then give another third to people outside our town church who are not connected to us at all.
Our AIDS orphans ministry continues to grow though last month we had one set back. One of the orphans from our town church who had AIDS died after a brief illness in the hospital. Stephan Shelburne and I visited the family nearby and prayed for the aunts and grandmother mourning his death and their loss. We also helped with some of the funeral expenses. The young boy was buried on a Sunday afternoon giving a chance for a group from our church to attend the funeral and sing for the family. While we hate to lose a child to AIDS, we are thankful that we had him enrolled in a program that could help his hospital expenses and his family with the funeral.
I have plans to write and begin a series of lessons for a discipleship program. I hope to teach lessons to at least five different groups of church leaders in several districts. My goal will be to disciple and build relationships with more than 100 leaders over the next seven months. I hope to start this new program by May. Also, later in the year, I want to visit as many churches as possible. I have lost touch with some of the church areas and no longer feel as connected to the rural mission work as I used to be. I want to re-establish my connections as much as possible so that I can give better counsel in the future. I am sure my travels will provide an opportunity for several journal letters.
As for now, we are sweating through our summer time hoping for the rains to start on time to bless the farmers around us. The cooler temperatures will be welcome. The greener Uganda will be a blessing to us as well as the numerous visitors who are planning on coming during the next few months. We are gearing up for a busy summer. Shawn
Journal Letter #354
For several years I have noticed the construction of large plastic greenhouses along the roads of Kenya. Some of the greenhouses are in the hills near Limuru; others crowd the southern shores of Lake Naivasha or dot the landscape around Eldoret, Mois’ Bridge or other places. I never knew how the industry worked but had only a vague impression that flowers were grown in Kenya and flown out of the country.
When our good friends, Werner and Elmarie Griessel moved to Entebbe a couple of years ago, to work on a flower farm, we had the privilege of touring that place and learning much about plants, stems, packaging and management. However, when they moved to Naivasha, Kenya a few months ago to work with a flower farm, we had the chance to get an even better and more profound picture of the flower business. I was truly amazed by this budding industry (pun intended). Let me share some of what Linda and I learned.
Werner Griessel works for a company called Homegrown, a Kenyan registered company wholly owned by Flamingo Holdings - a vertically integrated horticultural business involved in the growing, processing, packaging, marketing and distribution of cut flowers and fresh vegetables. Flamingo sells direct to supermarkets in the UK, where the demand for such premium products continues to grow. To help it service and develop this customer base, Flamingo has established processing, distribution and marketing operations in the UK.
Homegrown has been operating in Kenya for 25 years. They began initially with a vegetable operation but branched out (another intended pun) to flowers, which now accounts for about 70% of the company’s exports from Kenya with the balance made up from vegetables. Homegrown operates in three regions in Kenya including: Timau, Nairobi and Naivasha. The Timau region has four farms plus an extensive out-grower scheme producing lilies, carnations and vegetables. The Nairobi region includes the head office, a processing facility at Jomo Kenyatta Airport where vegetables are washed, pre-packed and labeled, Sky Train (their freight forwarding company), and MK airlines (in which Flamingo Holdings has a controlling stake). The Naivasha region consists of four farms which grow mainly roses, spray carnations, gerberas, germini, gypsophilia, lavender, and various other filler & foliage crops to make bouquets, packed at source, for delivery to the U.K. supermarkets. Once in the UK, the flowers are sped to either of the two Flamingo companies, Flower Plus or Zwetsloots. Here they meet up with flowers from Europe and the million chrysanthemums picked each week from Flamingo’s high-tech farm near Johannesburg. Samples from every batch of flowers are monitored in order to make sure that quality and shelf life are kept at consistently high levels.
Werner works in the Regional Office on Kingfisher Farm in Naivasha. The Naivasha region employs roughly 4500 workers (85% are permanent, 15% seasonal, and 60% are women) of the total 8000 workers Flamingo Holdings has in Kenya. This region produces 350 million stems of flowers per year in greenhouses which would cover over 200 football fields. Stems are picked each day and sent to refrigerated pack houses and cold stores. Large numbers of workers put bouquets together, wrap them, put the U.K. store labels on the wrap, and fasten the U.K. price tags. These bouquets are then loaded into refrigerated (to slow the aging process) semi’s that make the 3 hour run to Jomo Kenyatta Airport. The flowers are loaded onto a plane (about 100 tons of flowers and vegetables) around midnight and flown to the U.K. Within 48 hours, the flowers go from field to supermarket shelves all over England, and Flamingo Holdings takes care of every step of the process.
To get everyone to work on time, the Naivasha region has 25 buses that bring workers in for the graduated shifts that begin at 6:30 AM (mostly security & sprayers), 8:00 AM (harvesters and plant production) and 9:00 AM (post-harvest and shipping). Each employee works 7 hours and 40 minutes a day for six days a week (a typical work week in Kenya).
Some critics give bad press for the flower industry in Kenya claiming the company treats workers badly, makes them work in unsafe conditions, and often exposes them to harmful chemicals. These criticisms seem to be unfounded for the Naivasha region. All farms in the region are gold-certified by the Kenya Flower Council - the industry body set up to encourage businesses to adopt acceptable social and environmental policies, certified and regularly inspected by NEMA (National Environmental Management Agency) as environmentally safe and also carry Fair Trade Certification. Each farm has its own staff welfare and gender committees and provide free HIV counseling centers, free hospital treatment, subsidized noon meals (for about 7 US cents a person), free transport to and from work, personal protective equipment, housing allowances and wages that are in excess of 80% above the minimum wage set by Kenyan Law. In addition to this, through their corporate and social policy they provide community support to four local schools (building classrooms, paying teachers, and digging boreholes), provide 100 free meals a day for nursery school children, give free AIDS counseling, and have donated land for a local church.
Naivasha farms are also at the forefront of Integrated Pest Management (IPM) - a method of pest control using natural enemies rather than toxic chemicals and pesticides. Through this program Homegrown has succeeded in completely removing the use of all level 1 chemicals (the most toxic) from their growing operations. Workers go over every meter of the flower farm to inspect places where problems might exist. They identify problems and introduce the bugs necessary to correct the problem. Additionally, about 30% of the water abstracted from Lake Naivasha is returned to the lake in pristine condition through constructed wetlands schemes whereby the water passes through a series of man-made channels where special plants are placed that naturally extract all the nutrients in the water.
There is one final part of the process I need to include. The majority of greenhouses use state-of-the-art computer technology that analyzes the temperature, humidity, water and soil nutrients. The computers will roll out special orange covers to block too much sun, open or close windows to regulate the temperatures, turn on drip-lines to add water and mix in nutrients to supplement the flowers’ growth. They even analyze weather conditions and prepare the greenhouses for storms or adverse weather that may be coming their way. The whole process maximizes the productivity of the flower farm.
Finally, let me say Homegrown farms in Naivasha are beautiful places to visit. The fields of flowers are lush, and all of it is set against the African landscape and small Game Park surrounding parts of Lake Naivasha in the Rift Valley of Kenya, East Africa. Just across the fence, in the evening, one can see bushbuck roaming the fields or see the hippos wading in the shallow water of the lake. Fish eagles fly over head and dozens of Malachite kingfishers sit on branches looking for food. As I told Werner and Elmarie, they live in a very difficult place (tongue in cheek) but someone has to do it. Oh, and Elmarie has fresh flowers in her house all the time. Now that would be a job hazard Linda could live with. Journal Letter
#355
Let me introduce Linda Neema Nafula to you. Linda is the main reason we have a children’s home in Kitale, Kenya.
On the night of August 26th, 2007, a young woman in her early twenties seemingly purchased a bus ticket from Nairobi, Kenya to Kitale. She arrived in Kitale so early in the morning of the 27th that the sun had not yet come up. This young woman was pregnant and due any day. The trip was long and arduous and by the time she reached Kitale, it was time for the baby to come. She walked to a private clinic in town and checked herself in as Margaret Nailaka – a common name for women living in Trans Nzoia District where Kitale was located. Margaret told the clinic assistants that this was her second baby, but gave no details on the first.
No time was wasted. By 7:00 AM Margaret gave birth to a 5 pound baby girl. Mother and baby came through the ordeal in good shape with no apparent physical problems. A few hours later, Margaret struggled from her bed and walked to the gate. The guard asked her where she was going. She told him she was going out of the compound to purchase some food and drink – the private clinic did not offer such things. The guard did not want her to go. He feared she would not come back. Margaret said she was only going to buy food and come right back, after all her baby and bag of personal things were still in the room. She had nothing with her, so the guard let her go. Margaret, or whatever her name is, walked through the gate and disappeared. She left behind a newly born baby only hours old and what turned out to be an empty bag with only a bus ticket in it from Nairobi.
The district children’s officer was called in to handle the case. He investigated and discovered that Margaret had not shown any identification as she checked into the clinic. There was no proof of her true identity. No leads for contacts or family members were available. After several attempts to find out where she went, the children’s officer realized his search was futile. There was no proof the young woman really came from Nairobi as the bus ticket was intended to portray. There was no proof of a real name. There was no clear evidence of a village or family where the officer could turn. It was a dead end. He had an abandoned baby in his hands and he needed someone to take care of her.
The Kitale Children’s home received baby Linda on her third day of life. She was brought to Nancy and Bosco Mukholi, the newest parents at the home. The little baby has a perfectly shaped, beautiful face, a full head of hair, and the tiniest hands and feet. She sleeps a lot – unaware of the difficult circumstances into which she has been born. Nancy and Bosco chose her name. “Linda” comes from their current effort to name new babies after the missionaries in Mbale. (There is already a Shawn and Ian.) “Neema” means “grace” in Swahili. This reflects the Mukholis’ belief that baby Linda has come to them by the grace of God. “Nafula” is a traditional tribal name meaning baby Linda was born during the time of rains. This was true for even while we were there the skies continued to drop rain upon us. Nafula reflected the belief that her mother’s name Naliaka, accurately designated her tribal background. This made me think a lot about our names. Without any true evidence, baby Linda was given a tribal name and will for the rest of her life, unless something happens to show otherwise, be known and identify herself as a Bukusu from the Luhya tribe. We may never know differently.
The government policy and ours too on orphans is that if at all possible, a child should live with his/her extended family. Usually an older brother or sister or a grandparent takes this job. This provides the child with an important family and culture safety net in which to grow up and develop. This is by far the most preferred option for orphans. However, what should be done with abandoned children such as Linda Neema Nafula? Into which family does she go? How can her family be found? When there is no other place to turn, the Kitale Children’s Home stands ready to accept her.
So what will happen to Linda? The children’s officer has placed baby Linda into our children’s home. Right now her future is unsure. If family can be found, she will be returned to them. If not, then she may be brought permanently into the home and become part of our family. Linda is one of the many reasons our home exists in Kitale. Holding her the other day and watching her sleep contentedly, I couldn’t help but wonder if we would be able to watch her grow up. God knows! Journal
Letter #356 Greetings! I have debated about how best to share with you the report from Sudan. I figured it would be better to give it all at one shot rather than send it to you broken up over four or five emails. You can either read it, or delete it in one single key stroke. For those of you who spend the time to wade through it, I hope you find the Sudanese insights on reaching out to Muslims and my insights about literacy and preacher support worth your while. WEBSITE NOTE: The Sudan Letter can be found in the Sudan section of the website. To read, click here, and you will be directed to the page.
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