New experiences….

On Thursday this past week we attended our first Kenyan funeral. While we sometimes moan about “Africa time”, referring mostly to late starting times of events, this funeral was on time. The sad event was the death of the wife of a friend who is a member of a peace forum, along with MCC, and is also on the MCC Kenya advisory board. The funeral began at 9:00 a.m. at one of the larger churches in Nairobi, and the service ended at 12:00 noon. After a brief receiving condolences line, a convoy was formed, given a police escort to get through Nairobi traffic, and we left for the burial which was to occur on the “home place”. After some distance we arrived at the homestead to find a crowd approaching 1,000. The church service was mostly in English, but the burial service was mostly in the mother tongue, Kikuyu.

The burial service consisted of a tribute, some songs, and the lowering of the casket, and covering of the casket. There is a sense of finality as the casket is lowered and covered. Food was served to the mourners and we departed for home arriving home at 7:00 p.m. – a full day.

We had never heard a funeral sermon text from Exodus and were surprised to have the preacher use Exodus 28…. – the passage is about the vestments of the priest. He spoke specifically about the ephod and the breastplate. The service included several choir pieces and the MC made sure that choirs only sang the allotted number of songs – even if it took an interruption to make the point.

We had our MCC Kenya team meeting this weekend and several of the observations were noteworthy. We often wonder what the hosting community for short term trips think about a group of North Americans who take one or two weeks to come and serve/work alongside local communities. We had the opportunity today to hear some perspectives from Kenyans. The first is that visits by North American groups help to break some stereotypes, such as: the prevailing view that North Americans do not do any physical work; that women, particularly, do not do hard labor. These were destroyed by what MCC calls a “Work and Learn” group. This group of 14, 7 men, 7 women, from southern Manitoba spent two weeks working alongside local communities doing the hard physical work of building, hauling water, mixing cement, pouring and using a trowel. It was a healthy experience by both the visiting group and the hosting community. Relationships were built, new languages – or at least words – learned, and new friends made. Oh yes, some buildings were erected as well.

This coming week sees us traveling to Kisumu, located on the shore of Lake Victoria, for some meetings. We look forward to eating fresh fish from Lake Victoria. (cooked of course)and meeting with potential “peace-building” partners.

We wish you all a good week.

Our work email is mccrep@kenya.mcc.org

Our personal email addresses are: martharatzlaff@gmail.com or ronratzlaff@yahoo.ca.

Busy but mundane….

Not all of our weeks are filled with rouge “toll/bribe collectors” or safaris, etc. Some weeks are very mundane… this past week was one of those. Here is a snapshot of the week. First a warning – this may be too tedious for some of you. If so, skip this blog….

Monday: early to work so that we could spend the last afternoon with Kevin, Dana, Noah, Anna & Mollie. Kevin made a delicious supper for us after which they left for the airport to begin their trip back to Canada. (We are glad to hear that they have arrived there safely, and with all luggage intact.)

Tuesday: we find out we have no coffee in the house, so that is a good reason to go to Java House for breakfast. We still get to the office at 8 a.m. where we both check our personal email to look for news from home. Representatives from Ten Thousand Villages are in Nairobi so we meet with them for a couple of hours to make plans for how the artisan program will continue after our Artisan Service Worker term ends in May. Another meeting follows with a PhD student who is in Kenya for three months do research. After a quick lunch, Martha goes to pack up our belongings from the house we had been living in with the Corbett’s and moves them back to our own home. (More things to move back than we thought) Ron is looking after the MCC work from the office. We both comment that we are feeling a little unusual – probably because we will go home to quietness, meals with just the two of us and less water to boil and filter. Ron loads the vehicle with 10 computers for us to take to our Peace partner tomorrow.

Wednesday: 7:30 we are the road to take the computers to Kimende where Isaac (SALTer) gets them ready to distribute to schools that have peace clubs. This is an initiative to encourage students from different ethnic groups to communicate with each other and learn about each other. We get back to the office and start up the computers to see if we have any personal emails before we begin the MCC work. At 11 a.m. we have a meeting with a University student with funding needs. He is an orphan who MCC has sponsored since he was in Primary School through the Generations at Risk program. He is an impressive man who is doing well in his studies and has a clear vision as to what he wants for his future. He is one of the “success stories” that we are fortunate to be a part of.

Thursday: checked email for personal mail. Good news! A sister has sent a long and interesting email. (Martha reads through it twice) Today is Community Lunch at our office. We have 4 visitors from South Africa, West Africa and Akron, P.A. visiting us today. There are 14 for lunch today. Martha spends the afternoon at the Mennonite Guest House where she has been asked to help to rearrange the main room to make it more functional. Most visitors that come through Nairobi stay at the MGH. Ron stays to do MCC work and it is ready for Martha to review later in the day. Ron has again loaded up the vehicle with computers for Kimende. Again we go home to a quiet empty house (other than a few geckos stuck in the corner .

Friday: 7:30 a.m. has us on the road again to deliver computers to Kimende. At the office by 10 a.m. and again check for personal emails. Yippee! Two emails from B.C. We have a meeting with one of our development and relief partners regarding school feeding for the children. The government has provided some food to some of the schools but not all of the primary schools. The two partners have identified the schools that still need food. Now the logistics have to be looked after. A Global Family partner meets with us to give us a progress report. We need to go home earlier to make dessert for a dinner meeting. Plans to make a fruit salad have to change because there is no pineapple. So, we buy a watermelon (a good one) and go home to make cookies. Chocolate chips are not available here, so we buy chocolate bars to chop up by hand. Ron does a great job of chopping chocolate as well as nuts. We have learned to do many things togetherJ.  Enjoyable dinner meeting with three Africa regional directors, Akron Africa director and a former MCC couple who have lived in Kenya for many years. The topic for discussion is on peace and what was done in this regard when the post election violence hit Kenya.

Saturday: leave by 10:00 a.m. to pick up am MCC vehicle from the garage as the service workers are due back on the weekend. A work-and-learn tour group of 14 from southern Manitoba, are just completing their 2 weeks building a library, resource centre and 2 classrooms in the Kisumu area. They are going to the Nairobi National Park for the afternoon followed by dinner at the Carnivore restaurant and have invited us along. The restaurant is named correctly as there is all kinds of meat served – the most exotic being crocodile. Ron liked the croc meat, Martha – not so much.

Sunday: spent the day with the same group going to the Mathare North church (slum area) The service ended at about 1:30 followed by a lunch for the whole church. We got back to the guest house at 3 p.m.; completed the wrap up for the tour group; then went home to watch a Gaither DVD. Great way to end the week!!

So this is what a typical week looks like when we are not travelling.

And, yes, we miss our family….

Our work email is mccrep@kenya.mcc.org

Our personal email addresses are:martharatzlaff@gmail.com or ronratzlaff@yahoo.ca.

For whom the road tolls….

Our work with MCC in Kenya often takes us into the Rift Valley, and more specifically the part of the Rift Valley called Kajiado District which is home to the Maasai. Over the past month we have had some heavy rains in many parts of Kenya, including Kajiado District. Sadly this resulted in several deaths from flash floods. The roads, most of which are dirt (called marrum) are heavily affected by these rains. We noticed this during our most recent trip to Najile.

Shortly past the half-way point on our way from Nairobi to Najile, we rounded a corner, to be met by a roadblock made of large stones spread across the road with no way to pass. Two young men manned the roadblock, one working, or ostensibly working on the road just past the road block, and the second came to our vehicle. We (Martha and R2) were in the vehicle along with a Maasai women and young boy neither of whom spoke much English. We were a “little” concerned about our situation. The “toll collector/shake-down artist’s” English was poor but it was obvious what he wanted – 500 Kenyan shillings was his opening “toll request” although that is not what he called it. We don’t like to be “shaken down” so our immediate response was “no”. After some discussion – we in English, he in Maa and some English, the toll came to 300, then 200. Martha then led the conversation to a point where they let us pass with no toll collected. We were wondering how many more toll collectors we would meet on the trip, which normally takes 2½ hours, but this trip took   3 1/2 hours because of the deterioration in the roads. Thankfully we met no other toll collectors, nor any other vehicles.

The second trip we took this week was into two slums of Nairobi where MCC supports two schools. Just a comment on the word “slums”. While it might sound abrasive to you (and us), this is how people who live there describe their own environment. We asked specifically what word to use to refer to their location, and their answer was “ Embakasi or Mathare” slums, so we use the term, albeit a bit uncomfortably. The same rains had also affected the roads into the slums so the trip in and out was a bit dicey having to cross some narrow hastily constructed stone bridges to cross a few of the narrow gulleys created by the rain. We had Kevin, Dana, Noah, Anna and Mollie with us and it was clear that for many of the children in the slums, seeing white children was quite a novelty. Wanting to touch their blond hair, arms, faces caused our grandchildren to be overwhelmed. After some intervention, we delivered footballs which a school in Duncan, B.C. had bought for distribution to needy schools and children in Kenya. The footballs and skipping ropes were much appreciated and were immediately put into good use. Kevin had to step in to stop some scuffles among the boys who wanted control of the footballs.

This next week also brings the end of our family’s visit with us to Kenya. They will be missed and our house will be much quieter. Is has been great to have them here; see them learn first hand about another culture; do their home schooling; try new foods, even hesitantly; see some needy children and families; and, spend time with their grandparents. We very much enjoyed seeing them all and spending time with them. They participated fully. We will miss them.

Our work email is mccrep@kenya.mcc.org

Our personal email addresses are: martharatzlaff@gmail.com or ronratzlaff@yahoo.ca.

Vacationing in Malindi, little Italy….

As we type this BLOG post, we are sitting on the front veranda of our apartment at an RCI resort in Malindi. In the apartment next to us are Kevin, Dana, Noah, Anna and Mollie.  It is Kevin’s parents that have so generously donated these apartments to us for a vacation week.  Malindi is on the coast of Kenya on the Indian Ocean. Malindi has a strong Italian influence with many pizzerias, Italian restaurants, and Italian language is heard in many of the restaurants, or hotels. The resort that we are staying in is owned by Italians and most of the guests here appear to be Italian.

Our vacation has consisted of going to the beach, sitting by the pool, visiting Malindi, going shopping, going for ice cream, with the most difficult decision being which of those to do todayJ We check in on our MCC email at least once a day to respond to the issues which cannot wait, so it is not exactly a complete vacation.

Because Kenya is located not too far from the middle East, there are several visitors here from Iraq and Afghanistan. We have met a DC-3 (yes, built in 1963) pilot who is on contract to the US Dept of State, flying missions to locate poppy fields. There is an infra-red camera mounted on the belly of the plan, the engines are now turbo-props rather than the original props and he manages to fly at an altitude of 25,000 feet scanning the Afghan countryside and mountain ranges for poppy crops. When these are located, he directs helicopters to the poppy locations and the helicopters deploy a team of crop-destroyers armed with weed-eaters – the kind you use to trim your lawn – and they mow down the poppies. The helicopters hover to pick up the “crop-destroyers armed with weed-eaters” while the DC-3 continues to circle to watch for any “bad guys” coming to attack the “crop-destroyers”. The irony, not lost on us and the pilot, is that USAID has previously sent large amounts of funds to Afghanistan to build irrigation ditches to enable them to grow better crops. They hadn’t planned that these crops would be poppies.

We have also met people stationed in Iraq who, wanting to make sure they stay out of the U.S. for at least 335 days a year to avoid unfavourable tax treatment, choose to take their service breaks on Kenya’s coast.

It is mango season here on the coast and there are many mango trees on the compound. We regularly hear mangos falling providing us with very fresh fruit. We can eat as many as we want, as long as we don’t pick off of the tree.

Our stay here ends on Tuesday and we will make the long road trip back to Nairobi via Mombasa.

Enjoy your week,

Our personal emails remain martharatzlaff@gmail.com and ronratzlaff@yahoo.ca

“That was a bit long”

One of the surprises as the result of having children and grandchildren living with us for almost two months, is some of their quips. After what he thought was a comprehensive “prayer of grace”, R2 was reminded by one of the grandkids on hearing “Amen”, say,“that was a bit long”. What a great reminder that children are candid and often right

A few other things that are “a bit long” are the long lines of cars when matatus go on strike. What should be a two lane road, turns into three or four lanes, with everyone trying to get through a round-a-bout, that is clogged with vehicles of all kinds, making movement impossible. Then there are also the long lines of people who are walking many kilometers to their homes – many, many hundreds of people who have no other means of transport. This all happens as school is due to begin.  So the long line ups in the stores for books, clothes, shoes etc. make one decide to stay home and wait for another day when things will hopefully be calmer.

Another benefit is having the grandchildren come along when we visit some of our partners that run programs that benefit children. This past week we took a trip to North Kinangop where an organization called Hope Community Centre is located. Seeing the almost 200 kids interact with the North American visitors that we brought was heart-warming. Football, skipping, talking, looking after babies of Hope were all activities shared.

While we were there, we interviewed a young woman named Sharon, who had been at Hope for the past ten years. She was found on the streets of Nairobi at the age of 4 having lost her parents. She was living with a group of young street girls and was sniffing glue when she was found by Mama Lucy, (as the founder and director of Hope is called) Lucy took her in – to care for her and make her part of the Hope Family. To see the self-confidence, the vibrant faith, the dreams for the future, the responsibility now being assumed by Sharon was a reminder to both of us as to why MCC supports the work of organizations such as Hope.

For any of you who wish to read more stories about Hope, go to https://donate.mcc.org/project/global-family-kenya-hope-community-center

This coming week has us planning to go to Malindi on the coast of the Indian Ocean. We hope to do some reading, watching and playing with grandchildren, and just plain relaxing. Hopefully deciding on “what seafood to eat” will be the toughest decision that we will need to be making.

Our work email is mccrep@kenya.mcc.org. Our personal email addresses are:

martharatzlaff@gmail.com or ronratzlaff@yahoo.ca.

Goals for 2010…..

Just so you know  – we haven’t made any resolutions for 2010. We just read the five New Year resolutions  of a friend, and they were really good ones. Her first resolution was to read through the Bible – this has been one of our goals and we are on track for reaching that goal. There is something to be said for a married couple reading the Bible to each other. We are doing this after 39 years of marriage.  And loving it – most days J

We have some goals for 2010. Here are a few of them:

1. Having our work here last longer than we do. One of the challenges in working in relief and development is to see lasting effects so that dependency is decreased, if not eliminated. While the judgement on this will have to wait until after we have left Eastern Africa, we are committed to this goal. There is a quote from the book mentioned after this list which goes, “Success has nothing to do with money or notoriety, and everything to do with whether or not people will carry on the vision when we are dust”.
2. Assisting partners here in Kenya to do well what they say they want to do. Capacity development needs to be more than words as we work with these partners, whether they are faith-based, community-based, or also supported by other NGOs.
3. Learning more about peace building. We have stated that our goal is to increase MCC peace building programming in Kenya and we probably need to learn more about peace building ourselves.
4. Visiting another country in East Africa during the next year – one that we have not yet visited.

We do quite a bit of reading in the evenings and we enjoy reading some of the books that people leave behind, after they have visited Kenya. R2 received a good book for Christmas, written by Shane Claiborne and John Perkins. Having read The Irresistible Revolution by Claiborne this past year and being challenged by it, R2 is enjoying this book on leadership and followership  called “Follow Me to Freedom”.

Recognizing that the topics of the BLOG today are a bit random, R2 had the opportunity today to introduce three of his grandchildren to the joys of public transportation in Nairobi – namely matatus. The trip started a bit rocky as the tout, after we had settled in the vehicle, doubled the fare. We quickly said “we are out of here” and vacated the 14 passenger van. Thankfully another matatu was waiting to accommodate us. On arrival in down town Nairobi, the grandkids proceeded to crowd around their father like scared sheep. With time, they relaxed and the return trip and time at the market was enjoyable – if you can call shopping enjoyable.

Blessing and Peace in 2010 to all of our readers. Seeing the stats and knowing that you read makes us willing and committed to continue our weekly posts.

R2 and M.

Our personal email addresses are:

martharatzlaff@gmail.com

ronratzlaff@yahoo.ca

Christmas 2009

Dear Friends,

This Christmas season is the second year that we have spent in Kenya. Knowing the number of Christmas letters that you will no doubt be getting, if not reading, this season we thought that we would make ours short giving you the highlights of the past year. If you would wish to read in more detail, our weekly BLOG contains glimpses into our current life, our dreams and perhaps some of our frustrations.

Some of highlights of 2009 include:

-       Welcoming two grandsons into the family, one born to Mark and Nikki joining brother Judah is Cole; and Jesse, Tim and Joanne’s first. We had the opportunity to visit and spend time with both families.

-       Having Kevin, Dana, Noah, Anna and Mollie join us here in Nairobi with plans to spend almost two months with us. As we have said on our BLOG, being joined by a family of five certainly changes things but we are happy to have them and look forward to spending the next month together. We are taking some vacation while they are here but generally they accompany us in our work, enriching us and our beneficiaries and partners as they do.

-       Completing one full year serving as MCC country reps in Kenya. We have a great team with a wide variety of experience and skills.

-       Learning to work with each other. We have mentioned this several times during the last year and a half, but have truly enjoyed learning to work together. We still have our days, but generally we have learned to use the unique perspectives and gifts of each of us to serve here.

-       Seeing the impact of programs on the lives of ordinary people. Whether this is food, increased capacity, help for those affected directly, or indirectly, by HIV/AIDS, providing education for refugee and/or orphaned youth, are but a few examples of where impact is observed.

As we look forward to 2010, there are some challenges that we face:

-       Staying connected with our family as their families expand and mature. This is by far the greatest challenge of serving overseas. We do our best with skype, facebook, email, texting and telephone, but nothing replaces having coffee together, sharing a meal, holding a grandchild, seeing them smile/walk for the first time; or sharing rites of passage with them. This we miss, and miss greatly.

-       See long-term effects from the work that MCC does here in Kenya. We desperately look for changes that will affect the lives of Kenyans over the long term – whether that is access to water, increased food security, escaping the slums, becoming healthy or learning to live positively with HIV/AIDS, and doing as much peace building as is possible, especially with the coming election of 2012. While that may seem some distance away, the countries politicians, and increasingly the general populace is focused on this coming election.

During a time when giving in North America is decreased, then these challenges become magnified.

On the other hand there are many things that we look forward to in 2010, some of them we know about and others will be a surprise. We continue to seek to serve “in the name of Christ” (MCC slogan) serving ALL in need. May this season be for you a time of Peace, as we remember the Prince of Peace.

Peace,

Ron & Martha Ratzlaff,
Mennonite Central Committee
P.O. Box 14894
Westlands 00800
Nairobi, Kenya

Seen through the eyes of grandchildren…..

We spent three days in the Maasai Mara with Kevin, Dana and our grandchildren Noah, Anna and Mollie. It was enjoyable to see their eyes grow wide as they saw 40+ hippos in a hippo pool within walking distance of the resort we stayed in. We stayed at Keekoret resort which is an “open” resort with no fences to keep the animals away. This caused a few surprises as Anna saw elephants within 100 meters of their room. While initially frightened, she ended up managing to avoid having nightmares about being chased by elephants.

We saw the big five – elephant, lion, buffalo, leopard and rhino. We were all thrilled by the game that we saw – none more so than the grandchildren. As they have written on their own BLOG, they each had their favourite animals. Noah bought a small spear, perhaps to come back in a few years to hunt some game on his own.

We went on four game drives with multiple sightings of lions, giraffes, zebras, gazelles and others. We were hoping to see a “kill” but no matter how much Noah and Kevin thought they saw lions stalking prey, we did not see a “kill”. We did see hyena, jackal and vultures feasting on a fresh kill during our last game drive but that’s the closest we came to a kill.

The other notable sight was numerous carcasses – animals that died during the last drought. It is interesting to hear one of the grandkids say “there is another casserole”, rather than carcass. Caused us all some hilarity.

Two of the rarer sightings were the leopard and cheetah (2). It is enjoyable to see the excitement in the eyes of Noah, Anna and Mollie. Oh yes, we too were thrilled by the animals, but hearing and seeing the grandkids react was at least as much fun.

Today, Saturday, we attended the Maasai wedding of two friends. Scheduled to begin at 10 a.m., we arrived at 11:30 at the suggestion of the bridal couple. We were WAY early because the ceremony finally began at 1:00 p.m. With a plan to leave at 4:00 p.m. for Nairobi – 2 ½ hours away by rough road – we were concerned when the service was finally dismissed just before 4:00 p.m. The expectation was that we would attend the reception so we made a short appearance, had some local food and sodas all round. We returned to Nairobi after dark — driving in the dark is something that we try to avoid. This caused Dana some stress – and the teasing continues.

The grandchildren are a novelty to the Maasai, particularly the Maasai children who sit, stare, and poke. It sometimes takes intervention from grandparents or parents.

Lastly, during the sermon – this at the 3+ hour mark of the service – was an illustration citing Martha who was holding Mollie on her lap. We commented about this on the way home. Turns out this was a complete surprise to Martha – she had missed the reference. When asked why she missed it, it became clear. With the heat of the day Martha, and others, were concerned about the possibility of the bride fainting.

Our work email is mccrep@kenya.mcc.org
Our personal email addresses are:
martharatzlaff@gmail.com or ronratzlaff@yahoo.ca.

Life has changed…..

We live in a small two bedroom flat, one bathroom, a small kitchen and a sitting/living/eating room. Having a family of five join us is a bit of a change. Even though they are family, it does alter our routines a bit. As Dana observed today, Grandpa looked a bit shell-shocked the first morning as the routine of the past year was changed. Turns out we had become very accustomed to our morning routine or cereal, fruit, then coffee while we read the assigned portion from Eugene Peterson’s “The Message”. Now to have that strict routine rudely – actually not rudely at all – interrupted was a surprise.

Kevin, Dana and their three children, Noah, Anna and Mollie arrived this past Tuesday and will spend the next “almost two months” in Kenya. The first two weeks they will live with us, after which we have access to a larger home. In between we will go on a game safari (topic of next week’s BLOG), go to the coast together for a week and they will also spend some time on their own. It is GREAT to have them visit us.

They join us on some of our work visits and have already travelled with us to several of our partners to see the projects there. One notable visit was to the Embakasi slum (yes, the people here use that word to describe where they live) where a work-and-learn group built two permanent classrooms at Mukuru Menno Academy. The relationships the group built with members of the Mennonite church in Embakasi and with the community was very heart-warming. Truly both groups are changed during such a visit.

During our visit to Embakasi, Mollie and Anna were repeated asked “are you twins?” To see two blond-haired white girls was obviously a bit of a novelty. Noah, Anna and Mollie handled it well as they played with several of the local children.

We shared lunch with the church people, the tour group and many local children.

We look forward to the next two months as our kids and grandkids accompany us on our visits, work and some vacation.

Yes, our life routine has changed…..and we like it 

Our work email is mccrep@kenya.mcc.org
Our personal email addresses are:
martharatzlaff@gmail.com or ronratzlaff@yahoo.ca.

Glimpse into this past week……

First a disclaimer – this could be boring so beware

We thought we’d give you a short snapshot of what our week’s activities have been. We would say that this has been a fairly typical week. The activities include:
-       IVEP (International Volunteer Exchange Program) interviews. This involved the two of us, and one former IVEPer interviewing finalist candidates. We asked the Kenya Mennonite Church, as well as the Presbyterians to send us two finalists which we then interview, choosing one from each of them to recommend for invitation to join the IVEP program for one year. In total we are planning to send 3 IVEPers to North American placements. The program includes having the IVEPer live with a North American host family for most of a year.
-       Working on proposals and plans. For projects that are nearing the end of their term, and we wish to see them continue, we need to review, edit, and clarify plans from partners for submission for funding. We are hoping to have several new programs as part of the MCC Kenya program this coming year.
-       Reviewing quarterly reports and in this context quarterly means “every 4 months”. Having worked in business for over 30 years with metrics tied to quarterly metrics where there are 4 quarters in a year with each quarter containing 13 weeks, using terminology now which has 3 quarters in a year; for an old man, that is VERY confusing. Our task with quarterly reports is to verify that the narrative reads accurate and contains the necessary updates; and that the financial report coincides with our records of what funds have been advanced. Once that is complete, we advance the next tranche of funds. We have moved into electronic banking so this makes our routine administrative work more efficient; albeit more expensive as there is a transaction charge associate with every batch – in this case a batch = a transaction. So far no satisfactory answer to the question regarding “why is it called a batch if it only contains a single transaction”
-       Doing MCC Kenya projections at the ¾ mark. Our MCC Kenya year is March 1 – February 28 fiscal boundaries. At the end of November we are at the 75% mark and need to make projections for the full year. Reminds R2 of “forecasting at Digital/Compaq, Sun or any of the other commercial firms that he has worked for.
-       We update all of our MCC service workers and national workers who manage projects as to where they stand regarding their individual budgets.
-       Creating a Kenya MCC 2010-11 budget.
-       We welcomed a group of 14 from Manitoba. They are building two classrooms, installing a water storage platform and tank, and, if funds allow, building some pit latrines at Mukuru Mennonite Academy, located in the Embakasi slum of Nairobi. They will be here almost two weeks. We arrange for accommodation, local travel and various other aspects of this WAL (Work and Learn) group.
-       Meeting with partners. This involves either us travelling to see our partners or partners coming to see us. Part of our strategy is to deliver relief and development services through Kenyan organizations – NGOs, faith-based organizations (FBOs), community based organizations (CBOs) and as we are in the proposal phase, we field many questions regarding funding for next year.
- We have joined a forum called “Hope for Kenya” which is a cross-denomination forum which includes many of the church-related NGOs, peace and training organization. This forum has published two tools for pastors to teach peace-building and stewardship. These tools were launched this past week with an audience of 200 include media, electronic and print.
-       Our normal day begins with us at the office at 8:00 a.m. and we leave between 5:30 and 6:00 p.m. We have wireless connection at home so often we check our email once more from home. We make sure that we have skype online during the evening hoping to hear from or call friends and family in North America.
-       We try and avoid travel on the roads after dark so we try and be home by nightfall – at about 6:45 p.m.
-       We have house help 2 days a week for washing and cleaning.
-       An average week has us meeting with partners two days a week but that varies depending on the week.
-       December is a quiet month in Kenya as schools are closed and most take their holidays during the month of December where the norm is to spend the Christmas season with their families in their “home village”. December is also the month when “rites of passage” are observed. One of these is for boys graduating from Standard 8 (Grade 8), ages 14-15, where part of their rite of passage into manhood includes circumcision followed by two weeks of healing and teaching. This rite of passage also includes parties and much celebration.
-       We are looking forward to the arrival of our daughter (Dana), her husband Kevin and their three children, Noah, Anna and Mollie,  this coming week – they will be staying with us until the later part of January 2010. Life as we know it will change J

Blessed Advent.

Our work email is mccrep@kenya.mcc.org
Our personal email addresses are:
martharatzlaff@gmail.com or ronratzlaff@yahoo.ca.