Made it to Nairobi

Flights were long but uneventful. We arrived 6 a.m. at Nairobi Airport, came to hotel,showered and crashed for a couple hours. Everyone returning to full human status. Pastor Solomon drove in to Nairobi to meet us at the airport and our friend Joseph in customs was very helpful again. One of our drivers is a Christian brother, so our time wit5h him over these three weeks will be especially blessed. Tomorrow is Kenyan Independence Day (Madaraka Day) and we will begin our  trek to western Kenya and Solomon's home and church.

Meal at the airport

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On the road

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Solar cooker

Every day in Kenya and in many countries around the world, women and children spent hours gathering firewood for cooking, while we just turn on our stoves or use our microwaves.

As part of our trip to Kenya we are looking for ways to give people a hand-up instead of a hand-out. One of those opportunities is to introduce them to solar cooking. Since Kenya is close to the equator they have plenty of sunshine year round.

Today Jim and I built our first solar cooker in our backyard as an experiment. We used a cardboard box, aluminum foil, glue, a turkey cooking bag, a couple of stick, and a cooking thermometer.

We pasteurized 3 liters (3 quarts) of water in 1 1/2 hours - heating it to 160 degrees for several minutes to destroy many of the disease carrying microbes.

We also made delicious cornbread in 1 1/2 hours. Ugali should take about the same amount of time.

Much research has been done over the years of how beneficial solar energy is and I have to admit, it never occurred to me to use it in our own home. Who wants to heat up the house and pay for electricity if we can cook outside for free?

We will spend the next couple of days before we leave for Kenya to refine our little stove... but it was amazing to see what we could do!

Monika