East Africa Rollercoaster

After a brief, very satisfying, visit to South Africa I eagerly made my way back to the team in Ethiopia.

I was curious to see how they were doing and to hear what adventures they had made through on their way to the small village of Jinka in the south western part of the country.

Some of their adventures became apparent on the way as the tar road leaving Addis Ababa gradually dried up. It was replaced by a bumpy, dusty gravel road and we moved at a frustratingly slow pace.

At least Wayne was with me to keep me company as the green, cool and wet environment of Addis soon faded to a much drier, hotter and arid counterpart.

After two long days we reached Jinka and the images of the team members walking down the road towards us seemed blurred and surreal- almost as if they were mirages. But I soon realised that they were real, that we had made it, and that we were reunited with our team.

They eagerly briefed us on the situation: “We are in the communication black hole of Africa!”, was one of the first sentences. And we soon realised the full gravity of the fact. No cellphones. No internet. No bank. Heck, no landlines as fas as I know. Water supply was irregular as was the electricity. The two humongous diesel generators churning away day and night to provide the town with power ran dry the previous week when the diesel truck made an accident on the way there.

But the real prize of this town is that it is a central marketplace for the indigenous tribes of the surrounding area. Some of the most curious, spectacular, most talked about, unreached tribes in Africa live here. Strange men with bead bracelets up to their knees, colourful mini skirts and AK 47's parade the streets. Woman with stretched lips and earlobes to fit big clay plates sell you tomatoes.

It's remarkable.

The sadness of it is that the Kara, Hamer and Benna tribes practice a tradition called Mingi. A horrifying tradition where little babies are murdered for ludicrous reasons. For example if their teeth grow from the top gums first- they have to go.

And it was for these Mingi children that a little orphanage was started to rescue them from certain death. Currently the orphanage has 9 toddlers and is being run by a converted Kara tribe member and an American couple.

During the day we men worked on the new building the children are supposed to move in: painted the walls, cemented floors, installed water piping and cupboards and built a concrete kitchen counter.

The girls used Playprof, an educational game system designed to develop skills in children, to play with the kids. It was a great success and the children thoroughly enjoyed it.

Soon however time was running out and it was again time for us to go. We hit the road and made our way to Moyale. The border town on the Ethiopia-Kenya border. The environment became even harsher but it was a great relief when we crossed the border and welcomed into a fluent English speaking country.

Ahead of us lay 500km of gravel road running across the Chalbi desert to Isiolo. We had two transport options.

 1. The cattle truck: a 17h journey during which you sit on the iron frame running over the trailer, above the cattle.

2. The odd Cruiser: which you have to sit around and wait for and are lucky to get. This is a 10h journey.

 God was faithful and we got a cruiser pick up with seats on the back and a canvas top the next morning. It is way more expensive but at least we made it with our sanity in tact.

 From Isiolo we took a bus to Nairobi and from there made it to Chwele in Western Kenya, only a stone's throw from the Ugandan border. This was our next ministry point.

 We spent the next 10 days teaching and discipling the leaders of the Acts 1:8 ministry. We talked about the importance of discipleship, the true meaning of church and answered general questions. It was a very successful time and we once again realised how desperate Christians in the continent are for substance. Not just one crusade after the other and empty promises.

 The leader of the Acts 1:8 ministry, Dancan, is a true leader with great character and good values. But he has one big handicap: he's deaf. Eight years ago he had Malaria and the quinine medication damaged the nerves in his ears. The only way we could communicate with him was through a pen and paper.

 So we decided to try and help him. When we returned to Nairobi we took him with us. We met Oom Danie and the team coming from South Africa to meet us in the capital and within the big group we raised the R5200 that we needed to buy him at least one hearing aid.

We missed the moment when they gave him the hearing aid but we are incredibly happy that he got it and know it will solve many issues within his ministry. We are still praying for another R5200 to buy him a second aid. Please consider helping us? If you want to please contact me for banking details.

From Nairobi we left with Oom Danie's two Nissan Sani's to Maasailand. It's remote and cut of from civilisation but incredibly beautiful. We've already seen many Zebra, Dik-Dik and also other strange animals like the Chilubu monkeys.

Within a weeks time we are of to Zanzibar. Please pray for our journey there and ministry on the island.

Greetings,

Willem