Life in the Bush
We saw lots of Masai herding goats and cattle on our drive to the Newmans’
Monday began three days out at the Newmans’ house. They’re former Abilenians who moved to Kenya three years ago after they felt God calling them to help provide hope and purpose to kids in Nairobi and in their local community south of the city. They live way out in the bush (a 45 minute car ride on a rough dirt road from our already-remote motel 70 miles of Nairobi). As we drove out there each day we passed Masai people (the local tribe) leading their numerous goats and cattle to the local watering hole.
Our team at the entrance to the Newmans’ place
On their land, the Newmans are starting a training school that aims to teach life skills to young men and women who aren’t able to attend university or other post-secondary education for whatever reason. The school, which will be hosted at the Newman’s house, will teach skills such as finance management, business skills, farming techniques, and theology.
The Work Begins
About halfway through with the structure of the store
Our task this year was to help the Newmans build a small store next to their house where they can sell items to nearby Masai people, such as farming or building supplies. The foundation had already been laid, so our task was to build the walls out of earth bricks–a cool and economical concoction of moist dirt and cement pressed into a brick. The Newmans’ workers had made 10,000 of these bricks prior to our arrival, but they had not cured them properly, so only about 1 in every 20 bricks was usable! A few of us were assigned the job of locating and carrying usable bricks from the massive pile they had assembled. Besides bricks, we found scorpions, a black widow spider, a centipede, and even a red spitting cobra (twice!) in this lovely pile. Fun!
The best part about these days of work was hanging out with the Newmans’ Masai workers. Most of them were there last year, and we had grown really close with several of them, so seeing them again and catching up on life while we worked was really special. Three days didn’t seem like a long enough time to be out there, but we made the most out of every minute we spent there!
The infamous brick pile
Well it sounds like our fun is over for now. Too bad it came to an end, but congrats to Little Matt, the worthy winner of the prize!