Miranda Ebersole

Two young boys at a well dug by World Concern

It seems as if the further we venture into the remote areas of Kenya, the more difficult life appears to be for residents. After two and a half hours of bouncing on country roads that progressively deteriorated from gravel to completely disappearing, at which point, the jeep simply headed across unmarked rocky terrain, we reached the isolated communities of Olesere and Emurua Dikirr.

In these communities we checked three water wells that World Concern recently dug. One of which was solar powered. Harnessing the intensity of the African sun for a good cause seems brilliant to me.

As we drove or walked to each well, we saw several young boys herding livestock while holding spears and knives. I asked one of the staff why there were so many weapons in this area in contrast to around Narok, and he replied that it was because lions are so prevalent and often attack the animals. Several trees in the area were also ripped up or mutilated, which is a clear indication of elephant herds. Elephants, lions, and young boys do not seem like the safest mix.

After checking these wells, we visited the primary school in Emurua Dikirr to update ten students in the sponsorship program. While two World Concern fieldworkers helped the children write letters to their sponsors, Jamie and I sat under a tree and took pictures of each child to send to sponsors. Shy at first, the kids quickly warmed up to us and our difficulties in getting them to smile for a picture transitioned to convincing them to leave us and return to class. Their infectious smiles and constant laughter was the highlight of my day. I’m confident that the children I’ve met in Kenya will be what I miss the most once I leave.

A Maasai woman carrying water in rural Kenya

Although most of the communities I have traveled to with World Concern are definitely remote, Olesere and Emurua Dikirr seem to take it to another level. Although this area is hilly and you can see for long distances, I could see nothing except for hills, grass, bushes, and the occasional goat herder. I can’t imagine what it must be like to live in an area which seems to be completely isolated from the rest of the world. Driving down a “road,” we saw women walking for miles with heavy jugs of water on their backs fetching water. Dry and dusty, the terrain seems incredibly harsh and dangerous. Yet with all of these conditions, the people were welcoming, friendly, sincere, and amazing. This is why I think I’m falling in love with Africa.

Some of the children performing at World Concern's Child-To-Child Day that benefits AIDS orphans.

Attending a Child-To-Child Event held by the OVC department (Orphans and Vulnerable Children) of World Concern has probably been my favorite field day so far.

This event primarily consisted of five-hour competition between five primary schools that the OVC program works in.

The purpose of this event was to give social support to orphans and vulnerable children at these schools and to offer them a chance to participate and compete with other children.

There were several hundred children at this event, and the participation level was impressive.

Categories for the competition included folk songs, poems, skits, and dances.

The children did a great job in each event, and although the competition was long, it was amazing to watch.

One performance in particular was especially memorable.

Many in the audience were fighting back tears as a young boy recited a poem entitled “My Momma,” in which he talked about how much he missed his dead mother.

Watching him recite the poem was something I will never forget.

Although I have only been in Kenya for five weeks, I can already tell that I will not be coming back to the U.S. unchanged.

Interacting with these children and listening to their stories has been radically shifting my outlook on life.

An example of these stories occurred this past week.

We were delivering a letter to a ten year old boy from his sponsor in the U.S., and he was telling us about his family.

His father recently died, leaving behind four wives and several children.

He said that his father had been opposed to his attending school and had thought of it as a waste of time.

After his father’s death, however, his  mother enrolled him in school and signed him up for World Concern’s program to support orphans.

Hearing his story and witnessing the challenges he faces was an eye-opening experience.

Although only ten years old, he has already overcome huge challenges, which put the ones I face back in the U.S. in perspective.

After talking to him and helping him write his letter to the sponsor, he left promising to work harder in school.

It was an experience I will never forget.

Learn more about World Concern’s work with AIDS orphans - and here’s how to help.

Children hanging out by a well that World Concern dug.

535 children…535 deworming pills….2 interns.

Lining up children, recording their names, handing them a pill, and then trying to convince each of them to chew and swallow the pill was how Jamie and I spent an afternoon at a rural primary school.

Over the past three weeks, we have visited two other schools for the purpose of administering deworming pills, but this was by far the largest school we have visited.

It must have been hilarious for any observer to watch us vusing gestures and a mixture of Swahili and Maasai words in an attempt to explain to the children that we wanted them to chew the pill before leaving the classroom.

World Concern gives children in Kenya de-worming medication to help cure them from intestinal parasites. It will allow them to grow and develop normally without being stunted.

Walking barefoot on Kenyan dirt, eating under-cooked food, and drinking contaminated water are all ways Kenyan children contract parasitic worms.

Once children are infected with these worms, they usually develop health issues due to the worms stealing nutrition from their bodies.

Deworming pills kill any existing worms in a child’s body and also act as a preventative against future worms.

According to a World Concern staff member, the aim is to administer these pills every six months to children in schools that are partners with World Concern.

It only costs 44 Cents to free a child from stomach worms. Learn more about the 44 Cent Cure and donate here.

From Miranda’s Facebook page:

Only three weeks so far in Africa and I can already tell my life will never be the same.

Miranda is taking Kenyan public transportation again tonight….and making Ugali for supper. I think I’m turning into a Kenyan.;)

World Concern interns Jamie Tucker and Miranda Ebersole meet Kenyan boys near Narok.

World Concern helps AIDS orphans who live in rural Kenya get the support they need. Sometimes that means empowering family members to care for orphans.

She lives in a mud daubed hut that has a leaky thatched roof, while a small plot of maize and beans provides her with food. Small and feeble, she walks hunched over.

In a striking contrast to her ebbing strength, nine rambunctious children skip and play all around her as she stands in front of her hut. Smiling, she motions for us to enter their hut and sit down.

Once we enter, our eyes slowly adjust to the darkness and the interior of the hut begins to become clear. A depression in stone serves as a cooking stove, and a cowhide rolled against the wall acts as a bed for the family.

As we sit under the curious scrutiny of nine pairs of children’s eyes, the grandmother, through the translation of her pastor, proceeds to tell her story.

She tells us that four of the nine children jumping in and out of the hut are neighbor children who live with their parents in a house that sits about 20 feet away. The other five are her grandchildren, and she is the current sole caregiver of all of them.

The father of the younger four died recently, and after his death, their mother left to earn money for the family.

Although the family expects the mother to someday return, the current responsibility of caring for these children rests entirely on their grandmother. All five of the children currently attend school.

In the words of the grandmother, most of the family’s hope rests on the 16 year-old to finish school and start a successful career that will help support them. Due to financial restraints, they had been unable to pay for her uniform and books for school and she had been forced to drop out.  But now because of World Concern, the girl now has an opportunity to once again go to school and continue her education.

Some of the children outside of the Grandmother's hut

Because the grandmother now has a connection World Concern, she will receive some basic assistance. It may include instruction about hygiene, mosquito nets to prevent malaria, as well as access to safe drinking water. World Concern’s Orphans and Vulnerable Program (OVC) seeks to help families such as hers by providing material, emotional, and spiritual support.

The family lives on the side of a steep hill that leads up to the church they attend. This hill was so steep that all five of us healthy and fit adults had to take breathing breaks before reaching the top. The pastor remarked to us that not only does the grandmother climb the hill and walked the approximate half-mile every Sunday to church, but that she is almost always the first member to arrive.

The love that this grandmother displays is truly remarkable, and the dedication to her grandchildren is clearly evident by her actions.

Fieldworkers say they are compelled to serve because of the love Christ has shown them. World Concern’s OVC program partners with churches and communities in order to provide the maximum amount of support possible.

The goal: to remain a sustainable program even when World Concern moves on to the next project.

Here’s how to Support an AIDS Orphan.

These Maasai women pump clean water at a World Concern well near their village in Kenya. Previously they had to walk several miles to a pond, then haul back 44 pound water jugs, and only have dirty water to show for it.

For most Americans, getting clean water means turning on a faucet and putting a cup underneath. In rural Kenya, however, things are very different.

In a region that is semi-arid and currently facing a severe drought, clean drinking water is by no means a guaranteed resource.

During my second week in Kenya, I visited a community project that World Concern has developed, which provides an entire community with clean drinking water.

For some background information, the Narok office of World Concern has three main departments.

They are Nehemiah, Orphans and Vulnerable Children (OVC), and Financial Services Association (FSA).

The department of Nehemiah has several programs including Child Sponsorship, Food Security, Water and Sanitation, Education Resources, and Discipleship Programs.

The community of Narasha, which was were we traveled to, is served by the Nehemiah department with several different programs.

As part of the Water and Sanitation program, World Concern has dug one well for community residents and another one for their livestock. Prior to these water projects, both people and animals drank water from the same source, which was usually a pond.

Because of this, there were huge sanitation issues for the population.

According to a World Concern staff member, the well that World Concern dug about a year ago is the only clean water well for the surrounding population, and people from up to 10 kilometers away travel to the site for fresh water.

While visiting the site, we saw both wells in action.

It is through these improved water sources that these tribal families will be free from problems like stomach worms, which they often ingest in dirty water.

It’s part of World Concern’s plan to work with people in communities and improve them from the ground up, so these very poor people can begin to think about the next steps to a better life, like education, job traning and growing a small business.

Narok, Kenya, is the base of World Concern's outreach into the Maasai tribal community. The Maasai are nomadic pastoralists who are seeing the opportunities for raising livestock dwindle, and need to broaden their scope of knowledge in order to survive.

The day has finally arrived! After three weeks of searching throughout the African bush for that elusive internet signal, I finally have enough internet to post some updates.

Not having reliable internet access for the past three weeks has made me acutely aware of how much I took it for granted while in the United States….that and hot showers…but that’s for another post!

Everything is going great in Kenya and I think I am finally starting to adjust to the shock of being in a culture that is completely opposite of my own.

After arriving in Kenya, we only spent the first two days in Nairobi, and are now in the rural part of southern Kenya, which will be our home for the remaining three weeks.

We are living in a missionary compound a few kilometers from the small town of Narok.

Although we don’t have electrical outlets in our house, we do have solar power, which provides us with light at night.

The wildlife here is absolutely amazing. So far, I’ve seen giraffes, zebras, gazelles, and wildebeests.

We are very near the Maasai Mara Game Reserve, which is known worldwide as being one of the best locations for an African safari. The game reserve is not fenced in, which means that the same animals that roam through the reserve can often be seen in our area as well.

Because the way of life is so incredibly different here than from what I’m used to, I sometimes feel like I am living in a completely different universe.

Many of the people in this part of Kenya are part of the Maasai tribe, and have clung to many of their ancient customs and traditions.

It is not at all uncommon to drive down the road and see young Maasai boys, decked out in colorful tribal clothes, herding goats and cows.

Some of these boys are as young as 4 or 5, and when I see them out by themselves, my American mind immediately hits panic mode, as I wonder where their parents are.

However, this is not America, and the shock is gradually becoming less severe when I see such little children scrambling after livestock that are often twice their size.

As different as the people we come across may look and act, however, I am finding that they are not as intimidating as they first appear. With very few exceptions, we have been wholeheartedly welcomed and befriended.

Forgiving would also be an accurate description as well, since I’m sure our American ways of acting have frequently offended and trampled on many Kenyan social norms.

We spent the first few days in Kenya in the office getting orientated, but these past couple weeks have been spent in the field becoming acquainted with the work that World Concern staff are doing in the rural communities.

Those trips will be the primary focus of my next blog posts.

A Maasai tribal girl studies at a school near Narok, Kenya. World Concern provides opportunities for education in an area without other schools. It's a big deal culturally for girls to have a chance to learn.

World Concern Miranda Ebersole takes in the Seattle skyline during an evening of her intern orientation week.

Jambo!! Or…”Habari” as the locals would say. I’m in Kenya!! The plane landed a couple hours ago and I am officially in Nairobi. With part of this first blog post, however, I am going to backtrack a little and talk about the very beginning of my internship, which started when I flew to World Concern’s headquarters in Seattle about a week ago.

This past week of orientation has been fantastic. Being able to obtain a better grasp of World Concern’s purpose and work has been a great experience. Also, it has been great to meet all of the staff and finally attach faces and personalities to names, that have been in my email inbox or on the other side of the phone over these past few months.

There are three other interns, one of whom is traveling with me to Kenya. The other two are heading to Bolivia and Bangladesh. The four of us have spent all of orientation week together, and are now dispersing to three separate continents, which sounds very surreal if I think about it long enough.

Jamie and I left Seattle at 1:00pm on Monday and arrived in Amsterdam at 7:30am the next day (Amsterdam time). It was a 9 hour flight, but because we were traveling east, it stayed daylight the entire way. When we arrived in Amsterdam, everyone in the airport was cheerily shouting out “Good Morning,” which was incredibly confusing since we had completely skipped that important time period between evening and morning.

Once we arrived in Nairobi, we had been traveling for about 24 hours and all of those hours had been daylight….figure that one out! Jetlag is going to be great! Our Amsterdam layover was my first experience of being in Europe. Although that probably would not count as a visit for most people, I’m still counting it.

Driving from the Nairobi airport to the house, where we’re staying for the next few days, offered a glimpse at how different this city is from any other one I’ve visited. This is my first experience in the developing world, and although it was dark while we were driving from the airport, I could still manage to see some distinct traits of the city.

The driving was chaotic, people were meandering around the street (sometimes in the middle of the street), and there were much fewer street lights than in the U.S. We were warned to keep the doors locked and the windows up so that pedestrians couldn’t reach in and steal something out of the car, which apparently occurs frequently.

Keep checking back for more posts and pictures! I’ll be updating this blog regularly throughout the next six weeks.