Visiting Friends

A while ago I met a guy my age, Paul, on a bus coming from Matunda. He is from Turkana, a remote region in Northwest Kenya near Sudan and Ethiopia, and his people have been hard-hit by the drought. He currently studies logistics at a Christian training center in Machakos, a town about an hour outside of Nairobi.


Paul, his roommate, fiancee Phoebe, and Me outside his school.
I took a matatu from Athi River after visiting Kajiado for the day. As fortune would have it, it quickly became dark but I met another Kenyan, Mwando, who helped me arrive to Paul's place safely. His roomate is from Western Province and we talked late into the night with Paul and his friends about what they were studying, the Turkanas, and a vision of uniting the youth of Kenya.


A mattress for two (and 3 tonight). They pay about $13/mo. for this simple room.
The next morning I traveled another half-hour to meet another friend, Sila. I met him on the street, and to make a long story short ended up sponsoring his daughter for secondary school with the help of a friend back home. We walked and traveled by matatu for nearly two hours to see both his son, Michael, at Mukaa school and his daughter, Josephine, at Precious Blood.


Sila and his daughter, Josephine.
Josephine is first in her class and will now be able to sit for her final examinations in November. However, if Sila is unable to raise another $300 by then, she will not receive her certificate.


A cow grazes in a field by the roadside. Somewhere in the distance Sila has a homestead.
The hike up the road led to some spectacular views of the hill country we were in, vaguely reminding me of the Smokies... save for the farmland on all of the hillsides. I ran out of time to visit their home, but it was good to see where Sila's family comes from and spend a morning traveling with a friend.