During a time of crisis, you look to someone who can raise morale. Who better than me? But it would take even more than my male model looks; it would take the ultimate.

One of my best friends, Ray, gave me an iPod, and I had bought a little docking station so I could play it while I was working.

Inspiration struck. I loaded 1.2 GIGS of nothing but Neil Diamond and told the staff they could come to my office and listen WHENEVER THEY WANTED. You can imagine the joy and excitement and how much morale has risen since I told them.

During a time of crisis, you have to do what it takes.

When you have been in Kenya for nine years, there are things that use to be so unusual that you now take for granted. Ben and Kate decided to have a picnic lunch a few weeks ago and Ben was VERY dismayed that a baboon stole his lunch. It just didn’t happen often in Texas, so we forgot to mention it.

We have had lots of good fortune since we have been back. We returned on December 29; the riots didn’t really start until December 30th. I had to go into town on the 28th to send off the SAT’s; the very next day a Member of Parliament was killed and there were riots again.

But the situation is pretty grim. One of the saddest things is that there is one major tribe in Kijabe. Virtually all the non-members of that tribe haven’t felt safe, and have left what they have considered home for the past 5, 10 or 20 years to return to their traditional tribal lands. Stanley, a beloved member of the national staff, felt like he had to leave. It is beyond sad. Besides the hundreds of deaths, there are thousands of displaced people.

We have been trying hard to get the food to the schools. Margaret, the Kenyan woman who administers the School Lunch program, asked me to go with her to Muchorui, one of the nine schools we have just been able to add to the feeding program; we are up to 34 schools and 15,000 thousand children fed a day. Thank you for what you have done.

She asked me to go with her because, although she is adept at dodging riots and problems, there was one policeman that she couldn’t get past. He was insistent that she couldn’t pass his checkpoint without giving him nine bags of maize.

I’ve had several bad experiences with police in Kenya. Once I was delivering food and they told us they were going to arrest us; they explained that we would need to drive them to the police station, where they would process our paperwork, and then I would drive them back to their checkpoint. Then, I would drive myself back to the jail so they could put me in jail. Another time I picked up a drunken police officer who amused himself by pointing his rifle at the back of my head.

I wasn’t anxious to do this. But sometimes you just need to have a showdown with the worst of yourself and face your fears. I went with her and met the policeman.

Policeman: You must give me nine bags before you are permitted to pass.
Me: Why?
Policeman: Because you have stolen it.
Me: Here is the bill of sale.
Policeman: I will not allow you to pass until you pay me nine bags of maize.
Me: I will do it if you do one thing for me.
Policeman: What is it?
Me: You must go with me to the school and pick out 40 children who will not be fed because of what you have done. You tell me which 40 do not deserve food, and I will give you the bags.
Policeman: I will do it.
At this point, he stopped and said `I cannot make that choice.’
Me: Neither can I.
Policeman: You can go.

So we went and the children were so happy. Prices have increased so much that many of these kids will only eat what is provided at the school.

My car wouldn’t start when it was time to leave, and you just haven’t lived until you see a 52 year old try to push start a car on a non-road; many of the students helped, and we made it back safely.

Sometimes you just have to have a showdown with yourself. It is never fun, but it is always worth it.

Your pal
Steve

PS You might enjoy this link to a short five minute film about RVA from the invincible Scott Thompson: