Tom Beak
Articles by this Author
On the 10th of November, Four ‘young adults’ set off for Kenya; set for adventure, full of ideas of Kenyan lifestyle and culture. Many of our expectations, based on geography books and stereotypes, were soon to be proven wrong as we quickly discovered a rapidly changing Kenya. What has been proven true, however, is the
warm welcome and generosity of the Kenyan people; despite increasing levels of hardship and poverty. Not too sure where to start, what I do know is that the word ‘amazing’ has been exhausted, ‘overwhelming’ is an understatement and ‘dinner’ means buttocks in Kiembu.
We have now been living in Kathageri for over 2 months and are more than at home here. Living under Madame Grace’s unwavering hospitality at Plainsview Academy, we have been lucky enough to experience the real Kenyan way of life.
Under the guidance of our Boss/Mother Chrissie, we were soon stuck in many areas; visiting local orphanages, hospitals and schools. Soon it was Christmas, and with numerous stories of a snow-covered England, we all looked forward to a blistering hot Christmas. It rained.
Christmas was a very successful time for Peacemakers Kenya, with the Plot looking more and more homely, we were able to host a party on Christmas eve for the children of Kigumu orphanage. Soon a large crowd had assembled and enjoyed games, presents and a nativity play like no other expertly performed by the Kivuria drama group (one of the 1st beneficiaries of the Peacemakers Prayer house). A great day, marked with a lot of happy faces.
With the arrival of Sophie’s parents, Jackie and Dave, we treated ourselves to a short break to Samburu National park to welcome in the new year on Safari. Joined by a large number of Baboons residing in our campsite (stealing our eggs), camping under the stars, with entertainment provided by Samburu warriors, this was truly a unique way to celebrate the new year!
The new year has brought a lot of new challenges; opportunities to work for longer periods of time in certain places. This has meant very successful weeks spent working with children in Embu Hospital (particularly the abandoned baby unit), as well as, holding teaching posts at Kivuria Primary school and here at Plainsview itself!
At the moment, we are enjoying being busy, still learning new things everyday and getting increasingly inspired by everything we see and do. The ideas of ways to help and improve quality of life for many people in this community are continually flooding in, the only problem we have from now until we return home is finding time to complete them all!
This is definitely an experience I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend to anyone. If you are willing to help and keen to interact with the local community, there is no end to the good you can do. Plus, with the imminent completion of the Peacemakers Open House, accommodation will be made that much easier.
Tom Beak