Tuesday 12/13/11 - Njoro, Kenya

We were up today and off to the village of Njoro, outside of  Nakuru.  The conference center we stayed in was nice here too.   We had our team meeting outside in a gazebo.  It was such a beautiful morning!  After our team meeting, we had breakfast then headed off to Njoro.

Pastor Hudson Nyando

The countryside here is so different than in Nairobi.  The biggest different here is all the green.  Farms are everywhere here.  Njoro is a very poor village.  Again, there are shanties and the low stone buildings that serve as commercial buildings.   Here we saw bicycle taxis and motorcycle taxis.  There weren't too many bicycles in Nairobi, as one would have to have a death wish to ride a bicycle anywhere in Nairobi.

Just a few minutes oustide of Pastor Hudson's church we picked up additional security personnel.  We were joined by two Kenyan Military.  They were dressed in camos and were carrying machine guns.  (MP 5s for those gun enthusiasts out there.)  They also turned out to be really neat guys and great to get to know.

Our security (and Philip my driver on the right!)

Today we had our first day in Njoro, a village just outside Nakuru, Kenya.  On our way to Njoro we stopped to pickup two additional security personnel.  These two were in military uniforms and carried MP5's!

On arrival at Pastor Hudson's church we were ushered into his office for a welcoming by Pastor Hudson, then were led into the sanctuary where a service was winding down.  They start everyday with a church service there!  Once the service was over, introductions were made of our team.

We had a chance to go out and meet some of the kids in Pastor Hudson's church community then the soccer guys headed out to the Njoro Boy's High School soccer fields.  We had a girls team join us for the trip out to the fields.

When we got there, we noticed the fields had grass on them!  However the grass was very tall, since the school was not in session for the holiday.  The fields were also being used by a herd of cows!  The cows departed nicely, but left behind many presents for us to work around (and at times through).  This did not seem to bother the local kids at all.

We split the groups up into boys and girls.  TJ and I worked with the girls.  We ran several drills, played some games, and overall had a great workout.  The girls then wanted to scrimmage, so I refereed a game between the girls and a boys team younger than them.

After the game we headed back to the church for lunch.  Lunch was excellent!  The women here prepared an excellent meal for us!  After lunch we stayed and worked with the kids at Pastor Kennedy's church.  We ran more soccer activities for the kids and generally had a lot of fun.