Planting a Mango Tree

I am all settled into my new home in Mbita, Kenya. We are now working with an organization called SEEK. SEEK is a Christian environmental ministry, and it could not be more of what I want to be doing if I picked it myself. Let me introduce you to this new chapter…

            We live in an environmentally friendly cabin in the ‘bush bush’ that does have running water but not electricity (we have all decided that we would gladly take the bathroom and ditch the lights!) In the morning we hear the roosters, typical, but also the bush babies and the monkeys jumping on our roof. When I step out of my room I can see Lake Victoria… and the sunsets I have been seeing are indescribable! We are on top of this hill but when you follow the path down you pass Paul’s house and then a tree nursery and then you reach the beach. At night and in the early morning you have to be careful because the hippos come up to graze around the property and it is VERY dangerous to get in between the hippos and the water. I love it.

            SEEK teaches environmental education with a biblical foundation in the local schools, they have a big widows ministry, they have a goat milk feeding program for orphans whose parents are HIV+, youth and children ministry (especially at the beaches), they grow fruit baring trees to help their programs become sustainable, and they have many other programs. Today, I went to my first environmental club meetings at a local school. We took a taxi to the other side of this hill and then were told we were going to have to continue on foot because cars can’t get to the village that we were going to. We passed many donkeys as we hiked up and down these hills, crossed one small river and another dried up rocky river bed, and made it to this school on this beautiful green hillside. After JP (one of the SEEK staff… he is from Arizona) taught about creation, it is only the second meeting of the year for the club, I was asked to share about anything I wanted. I was so excited to talk to them about our creator God and his creativity and how we can enjoy him and know him by knowing about his creation. I talked to the children about their favorite things that they have seen of Gods creation, trees, mountains, butterflies, water, light, zebras, and on and on. It is exactly what my heart is for! I talked to them a little bit about art and how when we create things it can be worship to God because he designed us in his likeness and he himself is into creating. Ya, so to put it simply, I am right in my element here at SEEK.

            This morning we were invited to plant a tree from their nursery on the property here so that we will still be present in this place even after our time is finished. I worked alongside of Paul down by the lake, he would use the pick ax to loosen the dirt and then I would dig it out with the shovel… and it was really special to hear more of his heart and more about this place as we worked at planting ‘my’ mango tree. There is a huge fishing industry here in Mbita. Children come from all over to the beach when tragedy strikes in their lives hoping to find something better. I asked if children live on the streets around here and he said they all live at the beach. When the widows or the children try to do business with the fishermen they are often forced to have sex with them before any business can take place, causing major major problems locally with HIV+. A lot of the people here are just unaware that there can be other options. Even when mothers are informed that they will pass on the HIV to their children if they breast feed they have no better options, because goats milks has simply become too expensive and they live in poverty. They are left with a choice to let their child starve at birth or to breast feed and pass of the virus leaving the child very unlikely to live past 6 years old. Its heart breaking. Paul and his wife have been taking care of a little baby for the last several months ensuring that he will be properly cared for before he is able to eat solid food. The baby, David, was born with HIV but it is reversible right after birth with the proper care, and it has been for him! Paul and his wife have a heart for taking care of the children for their first months to ensure them a chance at life. Paul is a very special man with a big heart for all aspects of the community here… and it is a very beautiful community.