The Adventures of Eregai

Week 1 Summary:

We are stationed in Lodwar, Kenya.

This past week I stayed at 2 Turkana homes for a total of 5 days. We have been getting to know the language and the people.

To clarify, Turkana is the name of a people group in and around Lodwar. They speak the national language, Swahili, and their native tongue, Turkana. We will be doing most of our water projects outside Lodwar in Turkana villages.

Tomorrow we leave to join the Water Projects team which is working about an hour outside Lodwar right now. I think from now on, we will stay with them Monday-Friday every week working, and come back into Lodwar on the weekends.

So, the nitty gritty details of my stay in 2 Turkana homes...

First of all, I don't go by Drew anymore. My second day in Lodwar, I joined the family of John and Margaret Ejore and their three offspring. I don't know why, but having John and Margaret as parents for my first three days in Kenya just seemed kinda funny. A few minutes after I got there John gave me the name Eregai (air-e-guy). I feel kind of honored every time they call me by name and think I am a character in the Lord of the Rings. Anyways, my stay threw me into the thick of the language. I knew some simple phrases before I got there but once I got past those, they just taught me through hand signals and whatever other expressions they could. It was really hard to go that long without being able to say anything too significant but I managed, and we enjoyed each other's company.

They basically live outside. They had 2 huts. A grass hut, Margaret cooked things in and kept food. And a square mud hut, they kept all their belongings in (very little). Their life was basically lived outside. No electricity. The water they had, they carried there in jugs from a near-by government well. That was pretty much how everyone around them lived. We slept under the stars on inch-thick straw mats that separate you from the ground. The sky is incredible. It looks like pictures of the Milky Way. I slept good. The bugs would land on my face every now and then, but other than that, I would sleep pretty peacefully.

Food was good. Goat, pasta, bread-stuff, cabbage, tortilla things, kidney beans. Just a mix of that stuff. It wouldn't be my choice American meal but it really wasn't that bad. The goat meat had lots of delicious fat on it and I'm not too picky of an eater to begin with. All my years of being criticized for eating things that are too old, or have been sitting out too long, left on the seat next to us at a sporting event or the seat next to us at a restaurant, all those times are finally paying off. I don't get my plate and start wondering, where has this been and what germs could be in this. I just eat up. :)

During the days I would walk around town with John, take a nap in the shade of his hut, or fetch water and "groceries". One day we walked out of town and found some camels that were grazing.

Camels in Kenya = Cows in Oklahoma. John works for CMF (Christian Missionary Fellowship), the organization I came with. He does odds and ends at the church. The days I was there, he wasn't working though.

They were very good to me. Margaret would pile on heaping amounts of food on a plate for me. At times I noticed that she put meat in my food but not anyone else's and I was very humbled. They were overly-respectful of all my things. They would always keep my bag elevated or on a mat so it wouldn't be in the sand.

We were picked up on Tuesday morning, and by Tuesday afternoon, we were an hour outside Lodwar in what everyone calls "the bush". Basically away from civilization. The tribe is pretty much self-sustaining. There isn't a town, just huts scattered kilometers apart.... I stayed with Samson and Elen. A neighbor of theirs, Maurice, knew English and helped me communicate which was such a relief. I stayed two days. Food was similar. I watched a goat get slaughtered. And both mornings, I got a goat leg served to me for breakfast. I was pretty pumped. It's the equivalent of waking up to your mom cooking you a steak. I spent both days, helping Samson feed goats and following him to work at a missionary's house they were fixing up. Other than that, I hung out with the family and kids. Showed them pictures of America. And laughed a lot.

It was a great experience. I've been back at the missionary's house (Gene Morden) for the past 3 days. Gene is great and has a real heart for the people here.

Although we are going to be working mostly on the water-projects side of things here, CMF has a lot of different programs going on in and around this area that are benefitting the people immensely, namely:

Turkana Literacy Programs

English as a second language programs

3 medical clinics

Community Health Evangelism programs

Turkana Bible Training Institute

I have met 3 different missionary families, where I've been so far but a lot of these programs are maintained by the people themselves so they have ownership in it. So yeah, that is what is going on on this side of the world.

Josh and I are leaving tomorrow to join the water projects team and we will be doing that for the rest of our time here. So I think I'll be able to update you on that next week. Pray that our well-digging goes well. Pray that the people would see Christ's love for them through our work and interactions. But it takes God. And all depends on him. "If the Holy Spirit moves, nothing can stop Him. If He doesn't move, we will not produce genuine fruit - no matter how much effort or money we expend." -Francis Chan, Forgotten God

Peace out cub scouts