Mozambique, Singapore, Taiwan & USA

September 2012 Update

Thailand & Taiwan

Naomi in Asia, April 2012

Thailand Flood Relief, December 2011

IRIS Relief to Thailand Floods December 2011

Happy Christmas

Happy Christmas 2011

Taiwan

My journey now takes me to Taiwan for a season!

After getting involved in the relief effort in Japan post the earthquake/tsunami,  I began to get excited about the idea of  helping  to develop IRIS Relief, a branch of IRIS that goes into disaster and humanitarian crisis zones.

My involvement in this suddenly grew as I took a team into Kenya drought zone in August, and from there I left Mozambique to pursue developing, building and dream IRIS Relief and Development.

I traveled to the USA is August/September to see IRIS Relief get officially registered as an NGO under IRIS and now I arrived here in Taiwan where our ‘Command Central/Head Quarters’ are.

As I prepared my move, I organised and sent 2 teams back to Kenya for 2nd response to the severe drought zone.

One team back to Wijir, they were able to visit the villages we went to in August and were welcomed back in and asked to play games with the children and share in a feast. They distributed over 18,000 litres of water as well as thousands of kg of rice, beans and oil.   Along with them came 3 days of heavy rain!

Our other team visited Turkana, another region badly hit by the drought, inhabited by tribal peoples. They also distributed much food, brought joy to an ipd camp,  had the privilege of praying with a lame man, who re-gained the ability to walk and they also found Atunna.   Atunna aged 8, had been orphaned and was almost naked, very thin, hungry and dirty, our IRIS MombasaPastor was on the team, and officially adopted Atunna into his own family, the papers were signed and Atunna joined the team and enjoyed new clothes, balloons, a comfy bed, good food and much love from the team. He now has a mum, dad and brother in his new home in Mombasa with Pastor Salito.

Looking back to each little decision and going with every little nudge of saying ‘yes’, even when everything is unclear, where I don’t feel I really know what I’m doing, I know this move now is worth it.  I look at Atunna and think, he is worth every risk our team took in August to just turn up in Kenya and see what we could do, and these last 2 teams in risking all to go and love!

See http://irisrelief.org/ for more information on the IRIS Relief teams in Kenya

GOAT FEAST!!!

We decided to do one of the things we do best at Iris….throw a party!

Our hearts in coming out to the areas of severe drought was not only to bring food, but to be with the people and bring hope, encouragement and joy.

We arrived in the Kenyan-Somali village and sat down with the village elders and discussed our proposition, this was to buy a goat from the village and cook it alongside some rice we brought in and feast with the people from the village. We also brought in 500kg of rice to give out between the households.  

As we discussed the price of goat and agreeing to go back into town to fill up the big cans with water from town, the rest of the team got to know the kids, having much fun with footballs, balloons and simple games of jumping over sticks!

 

We were informed these communities were very wary of people coming in and the culture hard to understand, that they didn’t like their pictures being taken.

The kids took to us immediately, then the women warmed to us and welcomed photo’s as we shared in their cooking of the feast.

We got to laugh with the women as they cooked as we tried to learn words in Somali and Swalhi.

Meanwhile every household got a small bag of rice to take home to cook, 200 households for a community of 2,000. There was enough for some families to come back for 2nds….not sure how, but awesome there was more than enough!

As it was Ramadan, it was decided that only the children would eat the goat,rice and potato feast.  It came out on platters for everyone to share, with plenty of goat for each child.

For us it was so special to share with the village, the 4 hours we were there literally flew by, our host was amazed how the

village had welcomed us in and warmed to us.

The people are used to westerners or aid agencies coming through and just dropping food or giving vaccinations and driving on. I cheer on all these agencies do as many lives are literally saved,  but to get to stand and be with people, amazing… we are taught at
in Mozambique at our Iris base to go low and slow and stop for the one. What we did was a drop in the ocean, but I know for that afternoon, this was what love looked like!

Our heart is to send more teams and more food and cattle fooder we hear is a huge need!

On the Road North

 

GOAT FEAST!!!

RAIN!!!!

• After 18 months of absolutely no rain, today it RAINED!!!!!!
• We spend 8 hours driving through scrub land on sand/dirt/rocky roads, parts of it turned into an unexpected safari with Giraffes and worthogs and hugh vulture like looking birds, other parts of it like a valley of dry bones, with little piles of 2-3 cow carcasses.
• On the driest part of the journey we jumped out the cars and prayed for rain. While we had dinner with new friends from the Catholic centre we are working with, as we sat outside it started to spot, then light rain…..the first in 18 months!!! 
• Tomorrow we go and see a village elder in the hope of doing a village feast
• I forgot to bring my camera lead, so soon pictures to follow!

We head North

Last night we arrived after dark into the town, however hard you plan to make it in daylight….it seems impossible!!!

After finally finding somewhere for our team to stay, I began to feel a little anxious about what the heck was I doing bring a team of 9 people and 2 drivers out to place when we didn’t have a plan apart from to love people in need and feed them!

The place is very different from Nairobi and even Mozambique towns.

This morning we sat around a table and just prayed for open doors. All the NGO’s stay in one hotel, it was full, so weren’t able to just run into other organisations etc…however by mid morning the doors had flung so wide open we had to make tough decisions on where to go!

We decided to head north to an area where 85% of the cattle, the peoples livelihood as ever migrated to find food or died! We set off first thing for 3 days with oil and fun things for the kids and ready to love and feed people!

The journey continues…tomorrow 330K of dirt roads here we go!!!!

It’s like a Camel Safari!!!….and I also got to eat Camel tonight!!!