Visiting Kenyan Dignitaries

In 2010, the country of Kenya (eastern Africa) wrote a new constitution to restructure its government for the sake of efficiency. Despite Swahili and English as common economic and political languages, this country of 580,367 square kilometers experiences significant cultural, ethnic, and linguistic diversity. Since gaining independence from the United Kingdom in 1963, Kenya has experienced less cultural conflict than many other African countries. Yet, a country with such diversity of peoples often had difficulty of fully meeting the needs of such a diverse population. Thus, the new constitution created a system of federalism (similar to the United States) in which the national government would share power and responsibilities with 47 county governments (comparable to the 50 U.S. states).

With not having had a background in federalism, various international leaders, including my friend Jerry Regier, have been invited by the Kenyan government to lead seminars the political ethics involved within democratic federalism. Kenyan leaders have also made a variety of study tours within the United States. One such study tour has brought a delegation of Kenyan Governors to Oklahoma.

Tonight, I had the opportunity attend a reception held at Express Ranch (home of Bob Funk) and sponsored by Water4 in honor of this Kenyan delegation. It was an honor to meet:

Wycliffe Oparanya Ambesta, Governor of Kakamega

Peter Munya, Governor of Meru

Mohamad Ahmed Abdulahi, Governor of Wajir

Joshua Irungu Wakahora, Governor of Laikipia

Rutto Isaac Kiprono, Governor of Bomet

Johnathan Mueke, Deputy Governor of Nairobi

Evelyne Aruasa, Deputy Governor of Narok

and their associates holding other governmental offices

This delegation arrived Sunday evening. They then spent Monday touring agricultural sights and the Water4 production facilities. Today they met with several Oklahoma government officials at the Capitol and will meet with others, including Lt. Governor Todd Lamb, tomorrow. Jerry Regier has facilitated their visit to Oklahoma and is already planning a return trip to Kenya in hopes of taking some other Oklahoma leaders with him.

Personally, it was great to visit in-depth with a couple of these delegates and share my own experiences of having visited Kenya in 2001 and 2002. I've been invited back...so perhaps that can happen sooner than later.

pavilion at Express Ranch

His Excellency Wycliffe Oparanya Ambetsa,
Governor of Kakamega & Delegation Head,
presents formal greetings on behalf of the delegations

Mommie to Be

This morning our study tour schedulers had determined that we would be free to explore on our own and at our leisure.  We would then all reconnect at the hotel to be transported back to Korea University for our final two lectures.

But this morning's story starts LONG before we even arrived in Korea.  One of our teachers from Chicago, Lyn, and her husband, Tom, began the process for an international adoption over a year ago.  Eventually they learned that they were paired with a boy in Seoul.  The process for adopting from Korea is a lengthy process to help insure accountability of all parties along the way.  Lyn and Tom have, through their state-side agency, been in contact with the agency in Seoul.  Pictures of their son-to-be have been exchanged.  All of this pre-dates even the application process for this study tour.

A few weeks prior to our trip, something came up about possibly meeting her son at some point when Lyn might have time.  Arrangements would have to be explored with the Seoul agency to see if schedules would even match up.  Once our final "tentative" schedule was made Lyn was able to communicate when she would have the best opportunity.  It was not until the day before we left when she and Tom received confirmation that an appointment for the morning of July 5th was set.

Lyn and I, along with a couple of other teachers made fast friends earlier on in the trip and Lyn mentioned this opportunity.  I had mentioned that by luck of life I was with friends in Kenya when they formally began the process to adopt two precious children there and was able to take their first "family picture".  Lyn then invited me and the other two to go with her: 1) to help be some form of emotional support for her because, in her words, she was going to be a "hot mess" and 2) to help take pictures and video for her to take back to Tom and their families.  A couple of days later, after learning that he had previously adopted two Korean children through this very same Seoul-based agency, Lyn asked Professor Peterson to join us as well; his fluency in Korean would also help for translation.

So this morning, the five of us loaded into a couple of taxis and headed off to the Seoul agency for Lyn to meet her son in person.  What an amazing time!!  Lyn was able to meet and visit with her son's foster mom (who has already fostered three other children in preparation for an international adoption).  Further, through the wifi connections at the agency, Tom was also able to meet his son through the wonders of "FaceTime" (as were Lyn's parents and sister).  There was not a dry eye during the whole encounter.  It was truly a special hour or so.

It will still be almost a year before the whole process is completed and Lyn and Tom are able to bring their son back to the United States.  While Lyn and Tom have settled on a name for him (which includes his current Korean name) I am not mentioning it here as they have not communicated it to their family and I don't want them to hear about it from me <grin>.

Foreign on the Fourth

Today marks the third time that I have been in active use of my passport on the Fourth of July.  I've celebrated Independence Day in Kenya (2002), Germany (2011), and now South Korea (2013).  On one hand each of these experiences have reminded me of the value of the freedoms and opportunities which I have as an American and on the other hand has made me truly realize that there is an amazing human spirit and overall interconnectedness among people which transcends nationalism and politically defined borders.  So to my family and friends who will be celebrating today..."Happy Fourth of July!!"

Overnight we stopped in the city of Daegu, South Korea's third largest city (behind Seoul and Busan).  While there were no defined study tour objectives, we did have time last night so as to explore.  One of the things that we have noticed about Korean cities is that there are almost no single-family detached houses.  All over the place, including the suburbs and even rural areas, you see high rise condominium buildings.  We've been told that the ideal for a Korean family is to own a condo.  We've joked amongst each other about these condo complexes all looking the same and parallels have been made to our suburban "Levittown" areas.  Instead of little boxes on the hillside all made out of tickey-tackey like we see, you have high rise buildings on the outskirts all made out of tickey-tackey.  So even without an official agenda, other than a hotel stay, in Daegu we have reflected upon Korean urban life.

Wild Wednesday

Our goal was to leave the resort a little earlier than "normal" on Wednesday since we were leaving the immediate Pena Blanca area and roaming to the other side of the lake...and up a mountain...to get to a small school in a mountain top village.  I'm not sure what delayed us, but we still ended up leaving around the "normal" time.

At the bottom of the mountain's road we stopped at a restaurant and were told to visit the facilities as those at the school would not be as "nice".  Then the trek began.  About half way up the mountain our driver suddenly stops the bus and orders everyone to get off.  He was unsure if he could safely get us to our destination.  We began walking along the side of the road seeking a flat area at which we hoped our bus driver would again allow us to board.  No such luck.  HOWEVER, the teacher at the mountain top school somehow received word of our situation and drove down in a small pick-up truck to haul about half of the clinic/children's team to the top (I was in this group).  Once at the top of the mountain, the truck returned to get the rest of the group.

While waiting for the rest of the group and the medicines to arrive, the other "pharmacists" and I began setting up the inside of the one-room school house for our work.  The doctors' examination area would be on the side walk immediately outside of the school and then the children's activities would take place on a porch and grassy area to the side of the school.  The ONLY problem with the location of the pharmacy was that we were not able to benefit from the wonderful breeze blowing across the top of the mountain.  It was refreshing each time we stepped outside for some air.

The school itself was a site to see and I'll include pictures of it once I have reliable Internet connections.  It reminded me of the images of the "Little House on the Prairie" school because one teacher would present lessons covering a variety of subjects within one contained room to pupils of multiple ages, grades, and ability levels.  Grammar lessons were written on a couple of chalkboards while a math lesson was on another.  Another memory conjured up by this school was the summer of 2002 when I spent a couple of months teaching at Kima International School of Theology outside of Kisumu, Kenya.  The memory was of the chalkboards having simply been painted right on to the wall itself with the use of chalkboard paint.

Today was the MOST fun I've had in the pharmacy to date (other days were nice too).  I guess we are finally getting into our routine and know where everything is "supposed" to be.  We've even developed nicknames for some of the more regularly used medicines.  It's kind of funny being asked to count out 25 of something called "meth".

We served about 220 people today and then closed up early (this shocked me, but no one else was in line).  Part of the efficiency process that we have developed included the clean-up phase and we were packed and ready to go in "no time" at all.  And then began the trip back down the mountain.  Because there were fears as to the bus' safety for going down hill, all of the tubs of meds were loaded into the bus rather than the human passengers.  We then crawled into the back of a couple of trucks.  Once we were all down at the bottom of the mountain, we returned to the same restaurant with the "nice" facilities to swap people and tubs so we could drive the rest of the way back to the resort.

Thursday we venture out to another village away from Pena Blanca.  The remote roads which we are roaming have been full of adventure and, when we are open to it, lots of joy and blessing even with obstacles to overcome (like steep mountain roads and the torrential rain from Monday night).

Bombing in Kenya

On Monday, May 28th an explosion rocked downtown Nairobi, Kenya, injuring around 30 people.  The news of this event brings back memories of the few times I've been to Nairobi as well as memories of the attacks on the U.S. embassy in Nairobi back in 1998 (in conjunction with similar attack of U.S. embassy in Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania.

A variety of international articles on the attacks in Nairobi:

• NYTimes Blog "Latitude" on international opinions (USA)
• NDTV.com (India)
• The Miami Herald (USA)
• The Kansas City Star (USA)
• Press Association (UK)
• Belfast Telegraph (UK: Northern Ireland)
• Somaliland Press (Somaliland)
• Times of India (India)
• The Guardian (UK)

Eyes of a Child

This past Sunday night, my weekly Bible study group was concluding a series on fears.  During the discussion, the topic of seeing the world through the eyes of children came up.  So often, children have a completely different outlook on life than we adults have.  Too often we see the "realities" and fears of life rather than embrace the simplicity, hope, and joy that it offers.

This made me reflect upon some of my travels and the faces of children that I've met.  With some I've developed a relationship (even if only temporary) while others it was more of a passing encounter.  But nearly every time, regardless of culture, color, race, religion, economic, or other human defined background, I've looked into their eyes and glimpsed the simplicity, the hope, and the joy that life offers.

Me with Jazmine, Pricilla, & Jhon in Lima, Peru, June 2000

These three lived at Posada de Amor, a home for orphans & abandoned children

Me with several precious girls outside of Kisumu, Kenya, June 2002

A little girl in a Mon village along the River Kwai in Thailand, June 2009

My encounter with a day care group in Seoul, South Korea, November 2009
These children were on a field-trip at the Korean National War Museum

Me with a group of boys in Bodza, Malawi, July 2010
These boys attend a feeding center where I helped a team from my church drill a water well

My friend Holly and a group of girls at a school in Aschaffenburg, Germany, June 2011
(don't worry, the girls had already finished their lunches before we joined them)

One of my great honors as I've roamed the roads of lands remote has been to see the face of God as expressed through the hearts of children.  No matter the culture, you can see the simplicity, the hope, and the joy of life expressed on their faces.