Have you ever had one of those moments where you sit shaking your head wondering what just happened and thanking God it wasn’t as bad as it could have been? While living in Kenya (6 months in 2008) we had several of those moments and we know there will be several more when we permanently move there, God willing, in May 2010.
In March 2008 we purchased a generator in Nairobi for Nice View Academy. Electricity was sporadic at the Academy and Thursdays they (I really don’t know who they are, I never saw ‘city workers’) worked on the grid so we never expected electricity on Thursdays. We wanted the kids to have light in the evening when the electricity was off in order to study in the classrooms and have lights before going to bed. Plus we could use the electricity for our computer, phone chargers, printer etc.
After bringing the generator to the Academy Gideon called the electrician, Paul, to come and hook it up to the power source (sorry if I’m using the wrong terminology but I’m no electrician!).
Paul attached wiring to the generator, which at first he started to attach backwards. Chuck questioned him on it until he finally realized his mistake and turned it around – all this through bits of English that Paul knew and charades on Chuck’s part! Then it was time to wire the electrical box (shown above). Remember, Kenya runs on 240volt while here in the States we run mostly on 110volt with electric dryers running on 220volt. Paul stood on a pile of lumber to reach the box and when he started to reach his hand into the box Chuck yelled “hapana” (no) and motioned that he would go turn off the electricity at the main. Paul shook his head as if to say ‘akuna matata’ (no worries) and proceeded to reach into the box. As soon as he touched the wires he was blown off the pile of lumber and landed on his back moaning. Chuck ran over to him and asked if he was ok, to which Paul replied “mmmmhmmmm”. He sat up and shook his head but was still dazed. When he finally stood up Chuck asked him if he wanted to have the main power shut off now. “Ndiyo” (yes) was his quick response this time!
He did get the generator hooked up, after much questioning and calls to Chuck’s dad in the US. We did use it a couple of times (especially when a couple of days had gone by without electricity) when in need of charging phones/computers or printing something out. However, running the generator takes fuel and with funds being so tight it hasn’t been a priority to run it on outage days. We are looking toward God’s providence for a larger generator so we can set up a computer lab, lights around the compound and so many more ideas using electricity (a steady stream of it!).
If you are interested in helping us with this or any of our other projects please visit our secure donation site online and thank you for your prayerful consideration.