Jambo!! (That's Swahili for hello!) What an incredible mission trip to Africa Nazarene University for all of us! After close to a three-hour delay in London, we arrived about midnight Sunday morning after leaving DC at 7 pm Friday, and were up early on Sunday for church at the Ongata Rongai Nazarene Church. There was a special children’s program planned for us. Recently, a team traveled to Africa, and Melony Price-Rhodes shares her story from that trip.

Africa
Melony Price-Rhodes

During the week, we all worked hard on campus. We had a meeting with university management on the first work day, and it was wonderful to sit down with the people that ‘make it happen’ at ANU. They have accomplished a great deal and are wonderful stewards for the Lord. For one project, we removed the walls from three rooms on the top floor of the library to make one large room for additional library space. This new room featured a panoramic view of the campus; it was gorgeous! In addition, many of the team primed and painted a new transportation center. We made amazing progress with the list of activities the university needed for us to do, and they were very surprised and pleased that we made so much progress! One night Brenda Dean and I spoke to the residents of the women’s dorm.

Kathleen Rose and I were asked by the Vice Chancellor, Dr. Leah Marangu, and Deputy Vice–Chancellor for Academic Affairs, Dr. Mary Jones, to examine the university's proposed Early Childhood Education program. University officials will be presenting this proposal to a government commission requesting approval to start a degree in Early Childhood Education and to offer a teaching degree. Until last year, Kenyans had to pay for pre-elementary and elementary education. School was not free nor provided by the government, unlike it is in the US. Now many teachers were needed for government-run schools. The current fee was $16 a year, and many families could not afford this.

Our day started at seven with breakfast, and then we worked 8-12 with lunch 12-1, and back to work until five. Dinner was at 6:30, and then we enjoyed free time after that. It was dark, so we played cards in our house. On Sundays we went to Nazarene churches in the area. One Sunday, the Vice Chancellor had us over for lunch after church.

There are two stories that will be told at the June Mission’s meeting; don’t miss it! Here are two hints: We had to be careful when taking photos. Prior to our trip, we were warned what to avoid photographing. Many people, including the military, police, the Kenyan president, and Maisai tribes, do not allow their photos to be taken. Government buildings and the Kenyan national flag, unless in a public park, were also off limits. That was very different from just pointing and shooting like I usually do. The kids loved their photos to be taken. They got close to one another so they could all get in the picture and smile. They were so funny posing together. For the second story, the hospitals in Kenya could not be compared to INOVA Fairfax.

The area was very poor. Few had running water, and most utilized a single light bulb for their houses. Those are the lucky ones. Most people make about $3 a day. Many stores were only as large as a stall, and they might sell fruit, clothes, or meat, like half a skinned goat hanging from the ceiling. The floors of most of homes were cement slab or dirt. In town some houses were made of corrugated metal sides and a thin piece of wood for the roof. One million people live in this unsafe area. Many places were “off limits” due to safety concerns. We never left campus after dark, which was about 6:30. At midnight, there were guards and dogs that patrolled the campus, keeping out the two and four-legged creatures. We had a driver that drove us off-campus, and we never traveled without him.

The roads we traveled in the university bus were mostly dirt and were very bumpy. The main roads were paved but barely wide enough for two-way traffic. When we were on the way to the shops, a baboon family was sitting next to the road, munching brush. Later on the main road, a cow walked in front of our bus to cross the street. We just stopped and let it cross.

A baboon family came near our house everyday about 5 pm and stayed until the morning. They were on the other side of a narrow river from us about 100 yards away. We could see the big ones and watch the babies play. We could hear squealing when they got too rough in their play. One day we saw a warthog outside the windows of the library about 50 feet away. We frequently saw impala while driving down the road. These are certainly not the sites you see in Northern VA!

Our safari was six hours away from Nairobi with many miles over very dusty, bumpy, and unpaved roads to the Masai Mara National Park . We stayed at the Fig Tree Lodge, which was similar to a large tree house. We had to close our tents at night because the monkeys would unzip the tents and come in to scope things out.

The two weeks virtually flew by, and it was time to go home. We had so many new adventures and met wonderful people at the university, the churches, and the hospital. It was a trip not to be missed.

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