New life in Kenya : Reflections from Turkana

Turkana Reflections: March 01-04.17

(Sorry friends, this one is a bit long).

Turkana is the northern most region of Kenya. It borders Uganda, South Sudan and Ethiopia. It is extremely hot and dry. Life is very difficult because of the long seasons of drought. The topography is dessert like. Only 10% of the people are known to be Christian. The other 90% adhere to traditional tribal beliefs. The people here are known as nomadic pastoralists – people who herd cattle from one area to another in order to find fresh pasture. They raise camels, donkeys, goats, and sheep. The animals are their main source of food and livelihood.

Morris and I had the privilege of travelling to Turkana with The Salvation Army Canadian World Missions Team, under the leadership of Major Brenda Murray. The purpose of their trip was to capture the stories of people living in this area and how The Salvation Army is helping. These stories will be used to create video clips for next year’s Partners in Mission (Self Denial) campaign. You won’t want to miss it.

We flew into Lodwar and the heat (nearly 40 degrees) struck us immediately as we quickly saw the effects of an arid climate. Our short overnight stop gave us a glimpse of the Army’s work. The corps building has been under construction for quite some time and the Army is working on several projects for future sustainability. Of course, we were warmly greeted by a 'casual' brass band ensemble.

Lodwar Corps building under construction

Early the next morning we began our six hour journey to Lokichoggio. We quickly knew why a Land Cruiser had been hired for the team’s transportation. It was like a wilderness ride. We travelled for two hours over a rough road that had been paved in the early 70’s but had drastically deteriorated and is now a tar mac of pot holes. The shoulders of the road or adjacent off roads were the preferred driving lanes. It made for some fun, though, among the group and everyone was in good spirits. After two hours, we hit the better road and made a stop in Kakuma. Here there is a small corps. The corps officer is a single man who warmly invited us into his quarters. It was a two room building with a dirt floor and a few chairs. It was dark and sparse but his smile would make you feel like he had invited you into a palace. We shared cold drinks and prayed together for the officer and his ministry. We spent about an hour in Kakuma and had an impromptu visit with a non-Army family that the corps officer had connected with. They were living in a grass hut, struggling to survive and care for each other. One of the family members was blind. The children were quite excited though to see the Mazunga – the white man.

Kakuma Corps Building

The Mazunga has a nice phone camera!

And Major Brenda's camera is popular too!

The Team draws a crowd

Family life is very important.

A blind lady sits inside her hut.

As we left Kakuma, we drove by a refugee camp. We were not permitted inside but could see from the outside how congested it was. This camp was established in 1992 with refugees from South Sudan and Ethiopia. It now has a population of 155,000 refugees and asylum seekers.

We reached Lokichoggio just before dinner and spent a restful night at Track Mark Camp. In the morning we made our way to the village of Nanum. This is a very remote area where The Salvation Army began a project two years ago to try to assist the villagers with income generating activities in order for them to survive. Here we met about 60-70 people who were barely coping because of the severity of this year’s drought. The funds they had received were used to buy goats but now the goats have all died. We saw so many animal remains strewn along the road as we entered the village. The hardship here was quite evident yet when we gathered in a church hall (another building of iron / metal walls and a dirt floor), they were quite happy to share their singing with us. It stirred our hearts for sure. Following introductions and welcome, they divided into their groups and shared their stories with us. They spoke of how The Salvation Army’s resources had helped them so much over the past two years. Many of them used the project money to buy goats or make hand crafts both of which turned into businesses allowing them to provide for their families. They also began a micro financing system of taking out loans and repaying it with interest. But with this year’s extreme drought, they no longer have any goats to reproduce which translates into no other business. This means no money to buy food or water. Many of them are getting sick, sometimes because they have no choice but to eat the meat of the animals that have died and of course these animals were sick also. The one glimmer of hope in the village this year was a bore hole (well and water reservoir) for water which the government had constructed.

The Mission Team and us had opportunity to visit a few homes and markets. Homes were all grass huts called 'mandasse' and their little shops are either made of mud or small iron sheets.

The conversations we had with them were tough and sad because they were obviously looking to “us” for more help. While THQ is making efforts to avail of some rapid response funds for this area, we know that the funds will not provide all that they need here. Some of them do not even have proper latrines. The village is about 20 km from the Sudan border and they have also suffered from cattle thieves that come at night to rob them of any cattle or livestock they may have. Everyone has a weapon in their home for protection.

You will notice in some of the pictures that most of the young women wear wide bead work around their necks. This is part of a tradition in this area. The girls start to receive beads from their parents when they are young and they keep adding to the neck piece to show how ‘wealthy’ the girls are. The wider the beaded ornament, the better chance a girl would have to find a mate to marry.

This was a visit that we will not soon forget. The life style is so different from anything familiar for us - a struggle to simply survive. It was hard to look and listen and not have all the answers for them. Yet, they seemed glad that we had come.