It seems like just yesterday, but it had already been 12 months when I found myself returning to Kenya with a new group of volunteers eager to experience Africa and at the same time help make a difference in the lives of strangers.  Before we even met, all of us were united by a love of Christ and a desire to express that faith through sharing our individual gifts with the people of Kisii county.  We were a mix of mission veterans and novices, seniors and youth (ages 17 to 82), veterinarians and lay people, male and female, task-focused and heart-focused, and we all came from a variety of denominations.  This team was a fantastic group of individuals and quickly melded into a solid team.  As with all mission trips there was a preplanned schedule, but then again there was always the last minute changes as the plan necessarily had to adapt to unforeseen circumstances – funerals, transportation logistics, people’s needs, etc.  Such is the nature of mission trips.  I definitely have learned to be flexible while on these mission trips, although I, too, at times experience the typical frustration of a task and time oriented American.  As Pastor John pointedly reminded us in his Sunday sermon at the Deliverance Church, in the United States, “Time is Money”.  So sad, but so true.  However, near the equator it seems as if time, and with it, life, slows down.  Relationships become more important than the “schedule”.  I am reminded of this every time we travel through the villages around Kisii.  Our Boscovet leaders – Lilian, Kennedy, and Evans – can’t go anywhere without stopping and greeting at least two or three friends and acquaintances.  

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Another great example of the relationship oriented culture is the vaccination center.  During our two weeks in Kenya, the team split up and manned three different vaccination/dewormmg sites on four separate days.  People brought hundreds of animals – cows, goats, sheep, dogs, cats – to these sites to be vaccinated.  Cows came walking down the path singly or in groups of three or four trailing long ropes herded oftentimes by a young boy or elderly woman. They find a tree or bush at the vaccination site to tie their cow to. Goats are led by a rope tied around their neck. Dogs arrive on a leash made of chain link. Cats arrive in feed sacks secured at the opening with string to prevent escape.  After registering with the county veterinary officer, the owners wait their turn.  Usually, the vaccination process moves along smoothly and efficiently. But, on those occasions where demand overwhelms the vaccine supply, and we have to wait for a “boda boda” (motorcycle taxi) to resupply the site with vaccine from the veterinary office, the people simply sit and patiently wait.  There is no complaining.  There is no exasperation expressed at the inefficiency and waste of time. The owners simply wait – in some cases for over an hour – for the vaccine to arrive.  In Kenya, time is not money.  Sometimes, we would use this down time to engage people in conversation as language constraints permitted.  We shared who we were, why we were there, and why we were doing this.  It is during these disruptions in the schedule that we had the time to make the connection with individuals and share our faith that had called us here in the first place. It is during these slow times that the vaccinations and dewormings became relationship focused instead of transactional.  In addition, we handed out a soccer ball at each site and left it with the community youth as we departed at the end of the day.  It also helped to keep them from swarming the vaccination area as we worked with the animals.  Balloons were also a big hit with the younger children.  

Currently, there is an outbreak of anthrax in the counties that border the Masai Mara.  During the outbreak several people have actually died from eating meat from animals who have died from anthrax. And rabies is always an endemic life threatening disease in all of sub Saharan Africa. So, in coordination with the County Veterinary Department of Veterinary Services, we would get up at 6:30 AM on these vaccination days, eat breakfast, share a devotional time, and then leave from the hotel for the field.  A typical vaccination clinic day will run from 10 AM until 4 PM.  In addition to vaccinating for anthrax and rabies, we offered deworming, diagnostic exams, wound management, multi-vitamin injections, pregnancy diagnosis, and dehorning services.  Since the vaccinations were free of charge, people brought animals from far and wide to these sites.  In the field you tend to see a wide variety of conditions as people seek the opinion of the veterinarians. This year we worked in the Mosocho ward where animals are plentiful.  During the four days we held clinics, we vaccinated a record 988 dogs and cats for rabies and 4,577 cows, goats, and sheep for anthrax.  In total – 5,565 animals.  But it is not only the Boscovet team that is providing these services.  We worked hand in hand with the talented county veterinarians, veterinary interns, and veterinary technicians and together we made an amazing team complementing each other and learning from one another.  

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On the other non-vaccination days, we visited the school and played with the children, visited with the teachers, and toured the new 3 story school building.  When completed, this building will expand the Boscovet school campus to 5 buildings which houses 17 classrooms, library, kitchen, and an administrative office.  The school now provides education for 350-400 children in grades pre-K through 9th grade and employs thirteen teachers, four teachers’ aides, two cooks, and a night watchman.  Since many of the children come from families experiencing extreme poverty and cannot afford to attend the government schools we provide free or reduced tuition to over half of the students.  If the Boscovet Hope Academy did not provide this service, most of these children would be sitting at home.  The school which was purposely founded in 2013 to serve these children that we observed sitting near their homes as we walked the paths from home to home in the Masongo area.  There are also families who will contribute maize and vegetables in lieu of tuition for the meals the school provides to every student every day of the school week.  Each student receives a midmorning snack and a full lunch.  This past year we also planted over 30 fruit trees on the school campus to provide nutritious fruit to complement the standard diet of ugali, rice, beans and sukumuwki (think spinach).  The difference between the expense of running the school and the tuition income is provided by sponsors who have heard about this outreach and wish to help make a difference.  Certainly, more sponsors are needed as we expand the educational offerings at the school.  Twenty-five dollars a month covers the cost of an education, two meals a day, and a school uniform. So far, we have graduated two classes of 8th graders and each class has scored among the top 5 in the county in the nationwide KCP Exam. Our goal is to become the top school in the county.  

 

We also spent time with some of the Boscovet members – visiting their homes and deworming their animals.  It is always a pleasure to visit a member’s home, hear their story and learn how the Boscovet Project has changed their lives and continues to change their lives.  And I can see it in their faces.  Their health has improved considerably as their nutrition has improved.  In addition, they all participate in the highly successful microfinance program we started a few years ago.  Many members have started small businesses or purchased chickens and goats with loans from this program.  This year we visited a home in the Otamba chapter that had purchased an egg incubator and were hatching 350 chicks every 3 weeks.  This new enterprise has unlimited potential as they expand their operation with plans to purchase a larger incubator and install a back up solar power system to have in place when the electricity goes out – which is not uncommon.  

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The team also visited two of the 49 wells the Boscovet Project has placed in these villages over the past thirteen years.  One is a well located in the center of the Menyinkwa community and provides clean water to more than a hundred families in that area.  Others are strategically located in the surrounding farming areas on high ground where dozens of families can walk meters to get clean water instead of hiking a kilometer or more downhill to get water from a dirty stream.  The impact on improved health is immeasurable. Previously, it would not be uncommon for the women and children in a family to spend a total of 6 hours a day hauling water in 2 gallon jugs and 5 gallon buckets up steep hillsides.

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All in all, it was again a rewarding and inspirational trip.  I thank God for blessing me with individuals who made this a life changing experience.  It was life changing for us on the team, the Boscovet members, and animal owners in the area..  They have joined the great Boscovet pantheon which over the past 14 years has made a total of 17 trips to Kenya and includes over 100 different individuals.  In addition to me, this years’ team consisted of Ric Shallow (multiple trips), Sally Harper, DVM (multiple trips), Sarah Blackburn, DVM, Sam Barringer, DVM, Joan Barringer, Dimitri Berk, Del Fox, Graciejane Coles, and Madesyn Whittaker.  I can’t thank them enough for joining the team and helping to make this a memorable and fun mission trip.  Many new ideas were generated that will improve the operations and outreach of the Boscovet Project. Seven members of the team – those who were in Kenya for the first time - also went on a once in a lifetime overnight safari to the Masai Mara where they saw wild Africa in all of its splendor.  God is good.

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With Blessings and Peace from our Lord and Savior,

Dan