Kipsigon

Today Caleb and Hannah and I drove up the south slope of Mt Elgon to deliver 214kg of donated maize seed to the village of Kipsigon. That's the short story.
The longer story is that Kipsigon is one of the highest villages in Kenya, one of the last as you ascend the flank of Mt Elgon toward the summit, which is just over the border in Uganda. And with good reason: it is very difficult to reach by vehicle, even in ideal conditions. After an hour's drive south from Kitale on paved highway to Chwele, you leave it all behind for dirt. And not New England dirt, either; rock-hard dry clay that turns to grease when it rains and back to stone when it dries. Result: you will die or never make it unless you have a high-riding 4WD with good suspension. OK, it's possible with less, but no guarantees and if it rains you're done for.
Being on Mt Elgon, a vast, ancient volcano, this region has some of the most fertile, rich soil in the world, and none of those pesky New England winters to turn up rocks in the field every spring. This should easily be a place that feeds the world, never mind a nation, never mind its own region.
But a few years ago, tribal clashes turned this area to a wasteland. What had once been several thousand (up to 15 by some estimates) soon became a few hundred. The men were slaughtered indiscriminately by a rival tribe on a crusade to "regain" territory, and as many families as could fled for IDP camps in other places. When Africa Connect (our group here) first caught wind of the situation two years ago from our friend pastor Mark, there were about 500 people basically trapped up the mountain where this village used to be, with no food, no medical care, and little shelter. AC hastily organized a trip with whatever food, blankets, and supplies they could find in two days and headed up to Kipsigon. There they found....nothing. No buildings. No village. No clue that thousands had lived there only a year before. They handed out what they had in the most orderly fashion they could, doing their best to meet physical as well as spiritual needs, and left before the rain made leaving impossible.
The next year (2010) they went back with more supplies and found a village beginning to grow again. They brought two nurses and held a clinic, a godsend for those people.
And now, 2011, only barely into the rains, we were able to make it back up the insane "road" to Kipsigon and distribute nearly 500lbs of maize donated by a local seed company for planting. Pastor Mark introduced us to the pastor of the newly established (since the first trip) church. He had drawn up a list of local widows (most so because their husbands were killed by the guerrillas) who needed to plant, and planned the distribution accordingly. We met them in the simple, tiny mud church they had built, and were able to sing with them, share the Word with them, and remind them that this seed is only temporary -- that they must not forget the true Giver of all life and satisfaction, the Bread of Life, Jesus. And then we divided up the seed, 2kg each. They were so joyful and grateful to receive the gift, it was something to see. They sang, they clapped, they hollered, they danced, and not one of them tried to take another's seed. What could have gone wrong in so many ways went so, so right. SDG.
And the blessing for us was to simply BE THERE, on this spectacular hilltop on the flank of the mountain, looking out over the Rift Valley, almost 360* views. Pictures cannot do it justice, though we tried to capture the fresh, earthy beauty of the land and the people. Majestic is the best word I can think of.
On the way down we found out how difficult it really is to travel. Five adults in Titus's Toyota NOAH (basically an AWD minivan) headed down 12-15% grades on the roughest roads I've ever seen -- we took probably an hour for the 4-5 mile descent, downhill all the way, barely passable as dry as it was. Can't even imagine trying to navigate it during/after rain. Even with that careful driving we still scraped bottom a good 20 times on the way down. Most people's solution is to either go on foot (to go places) or use donkeys (to haul stuff). Motorbikes fare slightly better but aren't so powerful or heavy duty, so they suffer more. And yet we passed two or three full-size 10-wheelers traveling up and down that road!
Was it a good day? Yes.