JUNE 11th

The Methodist Guest House in Nairobi where I’m staying at serves chips for breakfast. My home for the next couple of days is making it possible for me to start the day with chips. I don’t have long to savour them though - I’m off to the MAF hangar at the city’s Wilson Airport, where I’ll be briefed about the organisation’s work in Kenya and South Sudan and then jump on my very first flight!

Along with a group of MAF UK’s trustees, we head off to Marsabit in the country’s north. All of us are flying MAF for the first time and we’re giddy with the excitement of schoolchildren. Our chatter comes to an abrupt halt as soon as the engine starts though – sitting on board a non-pressurised small aircraft has to be one of the best conversation killers going. Brad, our pilot, passes us all some much needed air plugs.

As with yesterday’s taxi, my views from the window are obscured – this time by clouds. With nothing but white fluffy stuff to see and no-one I can hear to talk to, I settle down for some of the sleep I lost en route to Kenya.

We’ve been advised by Brad to save our photos until arriving in Marsabit, because it apparently “looks much more like Africa”. As the plane lands on a remote airstrip, his description proves itself correct; reddish mud tracks snake through small basic units of accommodation, while the lush greenery thrives under the relentless sun.

We’re in Marsabit to see an orphanage that MAF has helped support. We meet Pastor John Arero who oversees the home and we head to his house first for lunch. The walls of his homely abode feature several certificates and photos; the pastor graduating from Bible college; and being presented a certificate by one of Kenya’s former presidents for his work amongst Marsabit’s least fortunate.

The orphanage is surprisingly empty, with most of the 35 children still in classes at the local schools they attend. We do however explore a sturdy chicken coop that MAF donors have provided the funding for. Ultimately this will be home to a hundred chickens and provide the orphanage with some much needed income. With there being no chickens in Marsabit, the animals will be flown in by MAF too. I’m left wondering if Brad also has a stash of chicken-sized earplugs?

Walking back to the airstrip I speak with Gabriel, a former resident at the home who is now a young man. His passion for Christ is overflowing and I’m delighted to hear that MAF is subsiding flights for him to complete a community development course in Nairobi, in order for him to assist the orphans and others in the town.

More clouds and more nod on the way back to Wilson. The four of us from MAF UK are being hosted by Brad and his wife for a meal that evening, but any road between the hangar and his accommodation has seemingly been shut for construction work. We complete the eight kilometre journey in slightly over two hours. Thankfully the trip back to the guesthouse takes a matter of minutes and I’m soon in bed, dreaming of fried potato.

JUNE 10th

My taxi driver tells me he likes mountain biking. Nothing so unusual about that, except I’m in Kenya, and I wasn’t expecting the capital Nairobi to be a global hotspot for those who like to trek on two wheels. Maybe it is? I’m not actually spotting many mountains, but with night having fallen I’m not seeing too much out of the car windows… except the number plate of the car in front. We’re stuck in a traffic jam and after taking two flights with a stopover in the middle of the night, I’m not actually relishing the moment.

I’m not here for the thrills and an African adventure though. As a communications officer serving with Mission Aviation Fellowship, I’m here to experience what God is doing through the teams in Kenya and neighbouring South Sudan. I’m hoping this insight will enable me to better tell others, that they may be inspired to partner with us through prayer and support.





















 

We're in Kenya!

I left my house at 4.00pm on Tuesday met up with my colleague Richard. We both travelled by train arrived onwards to Heathrow. We both waited for our plane headed straight off to Dubai Nairobi, Kenya. We both arrived at 3.00pm Wednesday afternoon.

My first experience was trying to fill out 5 different forms for a visa, the experience for me was tough. As a Dyslexic this was my worst nightmare! Once working out what other people were doing around me I just copied what they were doing it was fine.

Kenya is three hours ahead so we actually met our taxi at 3.30pm Nairobi time. With not knowing much of what to expect and having never been to Kenya or even Africa before! Exciting times!

I didn’t know what to expect before the airport opened, once I walked out of the airport, I was totally immersed in a new world.

I was immediately overwhelmed firstly by the noise; the traffic is lots of road signs, advertising billboards indicating and the noise. Cars, bikes and buses just moving forward into any available space that was available, at first it was gridlock once everyone worked out where to go – everything feel into place the traffic was moving quickly. A bit too quickly at times

On the drive across the city, there were many people walking along the side of the roads, many were in suits  and colourful rich clothes heading home from work and school. You could feel the hustle and bustle of a city but one like none I had ever experienced before.

All the people in the city were walking in and out of the fast moving traffic not looking where they were going. No one seemed to notice this chaos. Once I settled into the journey I could see there were many vacant and derelict buildings littering the landscape many unfinished. The buildings had many Chinese billboards and advertising; I was told later on the MAF staff that many nationalised Chinese companies are investing heavily into the Kenyan economy which marked changing times in the new globalised economy. This seems to give the Kenyan capital energy which you felt all around you.

Fighting through the traffic and people-watching made the time fly and the taxi arrived at MAF's hangar at Wilson Airport. I spent the day meeting with all the staff who works in a variety of positions. The aircraft in Hangar looked amazing! Much bigger in size than I have expected!  I will be uploading photos to the MAF website and Facebook when I have arrived back from the UK. Amazing stuff!

I spent a couple hours with the MAF engineers taking apart a whole aircraft. Incredible seeing the engineers taking aprt each piece of the engine putting it back together shortly afterwards!

Wow what a epic day. We landed at the Hotel totally exhausted... Its many hours on the plane with no sleep, GREAT! We will be heading back to the MAF hangar at Wilson Airport in the morning to find out more about the Kenyan programme. I’m really excited to finally see MAF’s work in the field seeing difference that the planes and MAF staff make in Kenya. I will be keeping you posted with future updates when we have internet! Take care.  Marcus J

First visit

For the next 7 days I will be reporting for MAF from Kenya with my colleague Richard Hubbard.  Richard is an experienced traveller, however this will be my first visit to Africa, I will be recording thoughts and experiences in this blog whilst visiting various MAF partners, programmes and people.

We will be going to Mfangano Island in Lake Victoria, where we will be meeting the children and teachers from the Gethsemane Garden Christian Centre. We will be handing out plane messages from the recent Christmas appeal and will record the children's response on film, so that we can share this special moment with you.

There may be opportunities during the week to go out on some MAF flights and experience the work that MAF does first hand, this will be particularly exciting for me as I am usually the person who updates all the online materials in the UK.

Watch this space, like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter for regular updates on our journey. We would love to share the blog with your friends. Please pray for us.


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Entry 7

Today was the day the operations started (well, ish because there were a few yesterday evening...)

At the start we talked to Dr. Eric and a patient - she (Jacklin) was a gorgeous young woman, however when you looked at her left eye it was bulging and milky-looking. Apparently, when she was 2 years old she had an accident, and the doctor who looked after her made a mistake and she could no longer see out of that eye, plus occasionally it would hurt her. But mainly the problem was that it didn't look particularly attractive.

We then went to see the surgery room. It was different... With English surgery rooms it's very clean and sterile. Well this was very not sterile, and the equipment was very basic... But somehow, so Dr Eric told us, people didn't really get infections, so erm, ok? Anyway after an exchange of pleasantries we watched the surgeries begin! (exciting moment)

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Jacklin had her eye taken out (usually you would expect someone to be deeply upset to lose a part of themselves) but after the operation, when we saw her, she had a patch over her eye and a massive smile stretching from ear to ear. A fake eye has been ordered to be put in tomorrow!

The blind man I mentioned yesterday went in just as we left, but I really want to see him, seeing the world all over again!


(Please pardon the lateness of the post, I had more Internet troubles... And just pretend this is 2 days ago... Yeah, I'm not awkward at all!)