Journeying to Longido

March 24, 2011

Flying over the Alps

I arrived in Longido last night after overnighting at the Kenya Comfort Hotel in Nairobi. The flight was especially enjoyable from Amsterdam to Nairobi. There were a lot of empty seats. I sat near a gentleman from Kansas, Missouri – an English teacher spending 6 weeks in Nairobi teaching children’s stories to Kenyan teachers. The flight attendants were quite accommodating – I even found one who speaks German to reset my cell phone to English.

Endless

I wandered around the plane a few times to stretch my legs and captured a few interesting scenes as we flew over the Alps. By the time we were over the Sahara Desert my camera battery died. The impressions and designs in the sand below were striking. For a long time there were patterns that looked like twisted and flowing root systems that had been pulled out of the ground and placed on the surface. Then there was another long outline that could have been a four wheel drive that had passed by or a herd of camels. I chose to think it had been camels on a caravan. Probably it was the wind leaving its ever changing mark.

I couldn't help but think about the people of Lybia as we flew over North Africa, just a few miles above.

More endless beauty

A traveller going home

Here at the TEMBO Guesthouse we are filled to overflowing. There are forty two World Vision staff working in the countryside and eating three meals a day here. There has never been a crowd so large and the TEMBO staff are being exceptional in the attentive service they are rendering as a team – askaris, the guesthouse manager, the acting coordinator, and housekeeping staff are working alongside the kitchen staff to prepare and serve meals. Mama Nai, TEMBO Trust Co-Chair and Trustee, and I helped make box lunches for tomorrow as WV workers ate chicken stew, ugali, and Nusra’s delicious cooked cabbage.

This is day six with seven more to go. We met today to talk about challenges they are facing and what they are learning in meeting the needs of this group, and possible solutions. There will not be time for doing much else of anything until March 31. Yet I know we will.

The rains have come to Longido and everything is fresh and green. Mount Longido’s catch is flowing into the taps throughout the village. The people can finally celebrate after so many months of severe drought, and so can the goats and cattle.

Three visitors from London, Ontario, Canada arrive tomorrow for an overnight. What a crowd we will have!