Welcome to Kipkaren

Imagine an Iowa farming town where the roads have been created only by back and forth travel that has worn the grass away. Now imagine that Iowa town at an elevation of 6,000 feet, set amongst rolling hills and rivers and banana trees, on a bed of red clay. That is Kipkaren. About forty-five minutes outside of Eldoret, the van turned off of the one major road that links Kenya to Uganda and the team bounced along for a few miles before the caravan finally pulled into the mouth of the driveway of the ELI compound. As we all hopped out of the cars, we could hear singing. When we walked around the corner of the dirt parking lot, it was filled with children 4-10, teachers, staff missionaries, and the ELI administrators standing in a large U. A flower-adorned piece of twine had been strung from one end of the driveway to the other, the final thing standing between EyeCare Kenya and the people we came to help.

"Welcome, Karibou, Welcome!" the gathering shouted and sang to us.

We were then officially welcomed to Kipkaren. The director of ELI, the director of the school, and the pastor at ELI each made very touching speeches welcoming us to their home.

They handed DeAnn scissors for her to cut the twine. After the finish line fell, we followed Doc in single file, shaking hands with every child, volunteer, and administrator on the compound. Some of those little kids have very powerful grips.