Going Up Country

Mary's father called all of his children to ask them to come "up country" for an Easter family gathering. Evidently the term "up country" is a relative term. It means that you are traveling to visit family somewhere outside of your home town. It's even considered "up country" when traveling south.

So yesterday we had the pleasure of going to visit Nyeri, Kenya to see the farm where Mary Kamau grew up and to meet her large family. It was so nice to be able to eat, socialize, relax, hear a short sermon, see Mount Kenya and hang out in the beautiful country side. It was such a blessing to be able to take part in this family event.

Check out some of the photos from our day in Nyeri...

Mary's Childhood Home

3 generations of beautiful women

Left to Right: Meredith Roberts, Erin Titus, Bethany Ziegler, Luisa Fairfax, Brandon Adams, Peter Githingi Mwangi (Mary's brother) & David Freeze

"1...2...3...WOW!"

What a day. Today I continued working on filming for the CCV video update by going to Bondeni, Mathare North and Joska. The kids (as always) were very good to work with and had fun preforming for the camera. I still have a few more centers to to visit after Easter break (Friday - Monday). It is going to be so nice to have a long weekend.

While at Joska was able to hang out with my parents sponsored child Benson and Carrie Tyson-Sheffy's sponsored child Rosemary. Both of them are 13 years old and are doing great academically. They seemed really excited to hear from their sponsors and was excited about the gifts.

Tomorrow our household and some of the other missionaries will be going "up country" to visit with some Kamau relatives. The plan is to be back home before dinner time tomorrow night. It sounds like a ton of fun and can't wait so see more of Kenya.

Power Failures

Due to the nightly heavy rains the power has been off and on at the Kamau house for the last 3 days. Because of this I was unable to write on my blog.

The past 3 days have been great! On Monday morning I worked in the skills department with Meredith and Luisa. I was helping take photograph of their hand made products to be used on a website to promote their merchandise. I also had the opportunity to meet up with Heather Lozada's small groups sponsored child Purity during her lunch break. It took her a while to warm up to me but I eventually got her to have a short conversation with me. She is such a beautiful young lady of God and has grown a lot since I saw her. Unfortunately this week the students had their exams so I didn't have time to take a photo of her. I will be going to her house next Tuesday to meet her family and promised her sponsors I would document it for them. After lunch I starting planning for a video that CMF asked me to work on for them to help advertise to middle school and high school student about orphaned children due to HIV/AIDS.

On Tuesday I walked to Kosovo with Charity from social work to visit my sponsored child Edwin Watulo Wanyonyi. He is a 13 year old boy that is currently in class 1. Currently Edwin is #6 in his class and loves math, enjoys soccer and would like to become a Pilot. He loves in the slums with his Mother and Father (Irene and Robert) and his twin brother Brian. Irene sells vegetables and Robert is a painter. After meeting him at the school office I walked with him to his house but unfortunately is mother had just left for work moments before we got there. So I promised him that I would come back sometime soon to meet his twin brother and parents and to see the inside of his house. Edwins birthday is May 1st so I am hoping to have the opportunity to visit him on that day as well.

Today I worked on starting a video for CCV (Christ Church of the Valley) in PA. Doing an update for them on there congregations sponsored children and Joska. I will tell you more about that project later on.

On Friday I went back to the Micro Enterprise department. This time I got to go with Joseph to visit the Bondeni Center for 2 group meetings. The group meetings today were very similar to meetings with Verginiah the day before. The first group was well established and was doing great at paying over and above what was expected and the second group was brand new and had not been meeting for very long and was still working on there savings and training. Because the second group was small and was just getting their feet wet in the program I was encouraged by Joseph to encourage this small group of single women. I really liked the question he asked me t before I started talking to the group. "Brandon, if you came back in 5 years and visited this group what would you expect them to have done from now to then?" I responded something to the effect of: I expect that in 5 years these ladies will have gotten married, started their own businesses, be stronger christians, paid off the group loan, had a healthy family, and would be working towards purchasing land and moving their families out of the slums. The group was very encouraged by these words and seemed very excited about what the future could hold for them.

After the meetings were over Joseph and I walked back to Pangani and visited some of his business clients along the way. One of his clients owned a hotel, another started a billiard room, another opened a grain and bean market. We were going to visit more but he and I were both not feeling very good and was feeling worse and worse the further we walked. I had a really bad upset stomach and he had flu like symptoms. Once we got back to the Pangani center we both went to get medication from the clinic on the ground floor. Don't worry I am feeling much better today. It's amazing what a little rest and medication can do for the body. I am just glad got sick on Friday so that I had the weekend to recover.