Another Day in Ol Kalou
Tuesday, June 4, 2019
The team is happy to report a fairly uneventful day here in Ol Kalou, Kenya. Because we worked so hard the first four days here, the team was blessed with an 8 o’clock pick up instead of 7:30 AM. That extra half hour really helped the day start off on the right foot, along with the promise of sun beginning to poke through the clouds as we headed out to the children’s home. Dereck, Steven, and Ruth took a trip down to Cure Hospital in Kijabe, Kenya to visit another Messiah Collab team doing work with 3D printed prosthetics. There, they observed a few monkeys on roofs, received a tour of the hospital, and enjoyed an intriguing lunch of PB, egg, and cucumber sandwiches (they can’t say they didn’t not like it) with the other Messiah students.
Meanwhile, the rest of the Solar PV and Irrigation teams were slaving away completing miscellaneous tasks on the systems. Professor Heisey and JJ barely had enough time to squeeze in a 30 minute nap after lunch. It was slow going for the Solar PV team in the morning, however, as the team hit a couple road blocks such as having difficulty setting up WiFi to put last year’s solar system online and then attempting to figure out why the irrigation team’s auxiliary pump had power yesterday but not today (turns out you can’t always trust the junction box). Though we had a few issues to tackle, we had a great time organizing the web of wires in the battery room to look a little prettier while jamming to Josh’s electric playlist. We even got around to fixing a light in Pamoja Hall that we may or may not have disrupted from its home on the ceiling last week.
The Land Development team continued to work hard at laying (and untangling) the drip irrigation system in the agriculture fields and began testing their system today! There seems to be a leak somewhere, but JJ knows where it is and is fixable, so all should continue (ahead) of schedule tomorrow!
Thank you for your prayers for sunshine! Please continue! Today did see more sunlight than yesterday (praise the Lord!) but still not quite enough to pump as much water into LLM’s water storage tanks as we would like to receive thorough results on the flow rate of the new pump and test the irrigation system. Please also pray that we can make the most of the last 3 full days here in Ol Kalou. While we have accomplished so much, there is still plenty to wrap up and many LLM kids and staff who deserve our appreciation. We want to put forth the same level of energy that we came with to finish serving well.
During our time here in Kenya, we have learned a lot about a culture that has both similarities and differences to the one we are comfortable with in America. After our work times, I have had the opportunity to play with and just sit down with some of the kids at LLM. I’ve been given a tour of LLM’s farm land, where they grow oranges, kale, cabbage, and lemons, among much more produce, sat with some girls as they do homework, and learned about their education system. The children have to wake up at 5 AM to get to school by foot, van, or bus, depending on what school they go to, by 8 AM and then the youngest are home around 4:30 while the oldest get back by 6. Around age 11 or 12, students are learning most of their courses in English. As a result many of the children at LLM, as well as the staff, speak English fairly well. It was nice to be able to learn more about them since us Americans over here can only really ask and answer the basic questions in Swahili. I have been truly blown away by everyone at LLM’s kindness and hospitality to us during our time here. We love Kenya!
-Meghan Sampson