Where, Oh Where?

I have no wife.  I have no kids.  Therefore, I can go anywhere I wish for vacation, with no regard for the concerns of others.  East, west, domestic, international...the world is my oyster (well, as long as the oyster is cheap enough).

So, in the next week or two, I must decide where to go for my spring vacation.  Problem is, I'm drawing a blank.  I can't decide where to go or what to do.  So I'm soliciting advice, suggestions, thoughts, what have you.  Here are the guidelines:

• I tend to shy away from cities as destinations.  New York, Chicago, London, etc.  don't necessarily interest me.


• I don't want to go anywhere too cold.  I don't want to snow ski or hang out in Winnipeg.  I don't mind chilly, but no snow.


• I like to camp, I like to hike, I like scenery.


• Recent trips have been to Northern California, Big Bend and Southern Utah.  I could repeat one of these and be just fine, but I'd love to hear of some new places.

That's it.  If you have a suggestion, go ahead and let me know.

Mile Marker 18

Speaking of deserts, I wanted to post this photo of one my all-time Top 10 favorite drives: Cottonwood Canyon Road, Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument.



Grand Staircase isn't a National Park, it's a National Monument, and it's truly an awesome place...southern Utah at its best.

To get here: Leave the Grand Canyon and head north to Page, Arizona.  Drive over the Glen Canyon Dam, and jump on Hwy. 89.  Enjoy the views of Lake Powell off to the right.  Cross into Utah heading northwest, still on Hwy. 89.  Around mile 18, look for the turn-off to your right.  Put your awesome little green Toyota Tacoma into 4WD and off you go!

At the end of the road, when you pull into Cannonville, the Grand-Staircase Visitor's Center is a must.

Wanderlust

Wanderlust: A strong, innate desire to rove or travel about.

As I get older (and, by definition, as I have less and less time to do things), I find myself thinking - a lot - about places I want to see and trips I want to make.  I don't hold any real hope of checking off more than just a few places on the list, but I hope to keep making progress.

For some reason, I love the desert.  I love mountains, too, and the coast (the more rugged the better), but the desert moves me the most. I think it's all the wide open space, the ability to see so far, the fact that life flourishes in such a dry, hostile space.  I thrill in the solitude and quiet, the sunrises and sunsets.  Yes sir, for me, it's hard to beat the desert.

One place I long to see is the Namib desert in Namibia, Africa.  This desert, perhaps the oldest on earth, is home to the some of biggest dunes anywhere.  Here's a Google Earth look at some Namib dunes:

Namib Desert - Dunes from Above

Maybe someday...

Two of my favorite national parks are desert parks:

Big Bend in Texas

Big Bend National Park

Capital Reef in Utah

Capital Reef National Park

There are four deserts in the United States: The Sonoran, the Mojave, the Chihuahuan, and the Great Basin.  With the exception of the Great Basin desert (mainly Nevada), I've spent a decent amount of time in these deserts, and everytime I go to the desert, my fondness for the dry, lonely, quiet places is confirmed.

Christmas in Kenya - Recap 3

Our last day prior to the safari featured two quick stops: The BCC campus and the New Life Babies Home.  I have written quite a bit about the BCC, so I'll keep it short.

The BCC (Baptist Children's Center) is a Buckner-managed facility.  Here is a blurb from the Buckner website:

Buckner began operations in Kenya in 2002 with the assumption of the Baptist Children’s Center (BCC) located in the Njiru location of Embakasi Division, Maili Saba Village. In 2001, Arms of Jesus requested Buckner assume responsibility for operations of BCC. Actual ownership of the campus remained with the Baptist Association of Kenya as it does to this day. The Manager’s house and cafeteria buildings were added in the same year. They were followed by the girls’ and boys’ dormitories in the following year and in 2004 the first two education buildings were added with one for the preschool and kindergarten while the other for the technical training program. In 2006, construction was initiated for expansion of the BCC school with the goal of expanding through the 8th grade. Completion of the 1st through 4th grade building was finished in 2007.

The campus now has 3 school buildings in addition to the Technology Center.  As I've previously written, this is a huge advantage for many of the children as they no longer have to walk long distances to school.  In addition, BCC/Buckner have more control over the quality of education to which the children are exposed.  Since the children have so few options upon leaving the BCC, education is paramount in providing avenues for employment. Here is a photo showing some of the school buildings:



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The Technology Center is used, currently, to teach sewing to young ladies.  The goal of this program is, of course, to provide a marketable skill so they are able to find employment.  As Tony Wenani (BCC Manager) explained to us, the girls are taught and tested up to a certain proficiency level, and then leave to find an internship or further instruction.  Once this process is finished, the girls are (typically) able to find work.  The photo below shows the sewing tables (with the machines removed and locked away).



Because fabric is expensive, and thus rare, the girls learn and practice using brown paper.  Only after they have perfected their technique using paper are they allowed to progress to using actual fabric.  I found the paper dresses to be fascinating:



It was a quick tour of the BCC, but as always I was very impressed with the facility, the program, the commitment of the staff...everything.  It was good to see Tony and his family, and I also got to see one of my all-time favorite kids, Charles (Charles and I have a close bond).

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After the BCC, we traveled to a babies home in Nairobi, the "New Hope Babies Home."   This amazing facility serves to provide a home for abandoned babies, most of whom have HIV.  As you might imagine, a baby, particularly an HIV-positive baby, born to a poor family, would be considered great burden.  As such, many such babies are abandoned.  You can read about the New Life Babies Home here. Once we arrived, those who had been to the facility before were able to immediately jump in and play with the babies.  For those of us making our first visit, we enjoyed a tour of the facility first.  Some thoughts:

• The buildings and facilities were very, very clean and well organized.  There was a critical care room, complete with incubator.  There were several different "units" for different age babies.  There was a room for potty-training.  There were play rooms, feeding rooms, sick rooms...this place had almost everything you would need to raise 50+ babies.


• According to our guide, almost all of the staff were volunteers.  People from around the globe (it seemed) would show up at the home to spend time with the babies.  Administration and management staff was paid, I assume, but there were many volunteers there.


• According to our guide, many of the HIV-positive babies had reverted to HIV-negative after receiving care and treatment.  I had never heard of this even being possible, but our guide insisted this was case.  Amazing!

Below are some photos from the Babies Home:





All in all, this day taught me (or, reminded me) amazing things are going on in Kenya.  God is using all sorts of people to accomplish all sorts of things.  He is providing teachers and buildings and sewing machines and paper so young ladies can have a chance to earn a living.  He is providing people like Tony Wenani to manage the BCC in such a way that both the orphans who live there and the surrounding community benefit.  He is providing volunteers and funding and facilities and medical assistance and generous, open hearts so that abandoned babies can live.  And He is, in some mysterious way, allowing these babies born with HIV to escape from the clutches of this dread disease.

Yes, God is doing these things.  But I am reminded time and time again that his instruments are people, and this, I suppose, is the greatest lesson I've learned.  I'm a "people," you're a "people,"...we're all "people."  And as such, we can, and should, all be instruments for God to use is some fashion.  What a challenge, what a calling.

Next up: the Safari (Lions and Hippos and Secretary Birds, oh my!)

Christmas in Kenya - Recap 2

Ah, the kids from the BCC. The ones I met for the first time in December of 2005, and the ones I’ve thought about every day since. I love these children and finally, after almost 2 years, I was able to return and see them once again.

If you just want to see photos, jump to the "Photos" page for a sampling, using the link at the top of the page, or go to my SmugMug site for the entire complement of BCC Kids photos.

By way of background, here’s a very general outline of the BCC and the children who live (or lived) there:

The BCC – Baptist Children’s Center – is located in Nairobi, a little bit on the edge of town. The BCC property (a compound, really) sits in the middle of a an “informal settlement” slum called Maili Saba. Amazingly, I was able to find the BCC on Google Earth:



As you can see, it looks to be a pretty hard-scrabble place.  There isn't much grass, it's located in a pretty rough part of town, and the infrastructure (water/power) is practically non-existent.  That being said, it's a God-send for the kids who make their way there.  As I've explained repeatedly, these are children orphaned by AIDS, typically.  Many were abandoned or left alone, forced to fend for themselves at a very young age.  Most were malnourished when they arrived at the BCC, and many were sick.  A few arrived infected with AIDS themselves.  Some of the stories I've heard have caused me to almost fall down with heartbreak.  (For example, one child was found alone, about 5 years old, naked, living in a trash pile in a slum.  No one knew his name or where he came from.  The social workers figured he was about a week away from dying.  They named him Musa (Moses), brought him to the BCC, and he's now a strapping teenager with a quick smile and gentle heart.  And he loves the Lord.)

One of the primary goals of Buckner and the BCC is to place the kids in foster care.  This allows them to learn all the things kids learn when part of a family: how to fetch water, clean house, obey parents, clean up after themselves, etc.  The BCC is great, but it is much more desirable for these kids to be placed with a family.  Some of the kids we visited are in foster care, scattered about the country, but they return to the BCC over the Christmas break so they can come to Brackenhurst and have Christmas.

Most of the children, though, live at the BCC in one of the dormitories.  As for school, the BCC is in the process of building a school complex, and is currently set up to school younger kids.  The older kids must travel by foot to school, sometimes walking back and forth quite a distance.  The grand plan, as I understand it, is to construct enough school buildings to accommodate all of the BCC children, up to 8th grade.  This will be a major accomplishment and will benefit the kids enormously.  After 8th grade, the hope is they can move on to High School, typically a boarding school. I will write more about the BCC in my next post, so I'll move on.

Our visit with the BCC kids occurred at a retreat center outside of Nairobi called Brackenhurst.  I wrote about it in one of my recent posts, so I'll skip the boring repeat of details.  I did, however, also find Brackenhurst on Google Earth (I love Google Earth!):



As you can see, there is quite a difference between the BCC and Brackenhurst.  Brackenhurst really is a treat for the kids, a lush playground that is very much a luxury in their lives.  (I've heard a story about the very first group of kids to travel to Brackenhurst.  They stepped off the bus in wonder, not really knowing what to do.  Suddenly the kids all burst forward, laughing and rolling around in the tall, green grass, something they had only heard about.)

As at Seed of Hope, we did VBS, games, activities and visiting.  Unlike Seed of Hope, however, we stayed at Brackenhurst alongside the kids.  This afforded us much more time to be with them, more free time to just hang out and visit.  We ate all our meals with the kids as well, which was a blast.  All in all, it was less rushed with the BCC kids, more relaxed.  As a result, and despite a bit of a slow start, we ended up probably digging deeper into the lives of these kids that those at Seed of Hope.

One of the joys of traveling to Kenya repeatedly has been the chance to see the same kids, and to be able to see them grow and mature.  This was really brought home on this trip as I hadn't seen them in almost two years.  (There were no trips to Kenya last Christmas as the country was shaken by violence surrounding a presidential election.)  I was a bit curious if the kids would remember me, and if I would remember their names, but it really was as if I had just left.  Many of them called out to me by name as we arrived, and their names came to me, in most cases, pretty easy.  As I said above, I've been thinking about these kids every day since December 2005.

And they've grown!  The little ones aren't quite as little, and the older ones are now well on their way to becoming young men and women.  It was so very encouraging to see how the kids had progressed, how their English had improved, how their frames had filled out, how their confidence had grown.  It was very, very satisfying to sit down, after 20 long months, and catch up, listening to their stories of school and life and everything.

Josephine: 2005

Josephine: 2006

Josephine: 2008

As I sat listening, and, later, as I ran around playing, I was solidly struck by the overwhelming feeling these were MY kids.  Not my biological kids, of course, but the kids, above all others, I know and love.  I hope to come to know the Seed of Hope kids just as well, but for now, the BCC kids have my heart.  It was heaven on earth for me to just see them again, to hang out and play, to goof around, to hug and tell good night.  I hadn't realized how much I had missed them.  Thank you Lord!

As always, time flew.  We did VBS, played games, went to the tea fields, watched the Polar Express (the kids would laugh at the oddest things...very different than watching the movie with American kids), and prepared Christmas gifts.  The morning of our last day, I donned the Santa suit again, made my appearance (these kids weren't quite as frightened...more amused, I'd say) and watched in joy as we delivered the gifts so many (of you ) donated.  Oh, the kids loved it!  The toys, the clothes, the stickers, the candy, the dolls, the books...everything!  They were so very, very excited and happy.  I couldn't help but tear up watching the kids, old and young, dig into their gifts with such excitement, such appreciation, such wonder.  I particularly watched some of the younger kids, a few whom I knew had never before had Christmas.  Man, what a party.  What an absolute joy to be there.



Unfortunately, we had to shortly thereafter hit the road.  Tough, tough, tough.  As always.  We said our goodbyes, got in the vans...and waited.  And waited.  So a few of us got out and said goodbye again, threw around a few more hugs, gave our addresses out a few more times...then got back in the vans, this time to leave.

I'll be back.  I hope to always go back, God willing, to go see "my" kids.  It's a sacrifice - it's expensive, and a long trip, and tough on the body - but it is always, always worth the effort.  Perhaps there will come a day when I don't go back, when I have taken my last trip to see the BCC kids.  I can't imagine such a thing, but I suppose all things end at some point.  For now, however, God has given me a heart and passion for these children, and the countdown to December 2009 has begun.

Next post: BCC Campus and AIDS Baby Home