The Mango Memoirs

Kakuma Refugee Camp, Part 3

Posted on April 27, 2018 by Angela @ The Mango Memoirs • 0 Comments

Today we’re sharing the third post from our trip to Kakuma Refugee Camp at the end of February. (Click over to see the first and second posts.)

Our first stop on our last full day was to meet with a small church just outside Kakuma before driving further north. As I mentioned in one of the earlier posts, it’s common in Kenya to offer guests a meal when they visit. The small church didn’t have a building and the people had very little, but they graciously gave us a goat in place of a meal. We were so moved by their act of generosity. The only place to put her was in the back of the ambulance that part of our group was using as transportation that day, so she rode along. We later gave her to a family who prepared meals for us during our stay. Meat is truly a gift in Turkana County. Many were blessed by the gift of this goat.

Filed Under: Africa

Kakuma Refugee Camp, Part 2

Posted on April 17, 2018 by Angela @ The Mango Memoirs • 1 Comment

The first post from our trip north to the Kakuma Refugee Camp shared a bit about why we went, who we traveled with, and where we stayed. Today, you’ll get a small glimpse of what the camps looked like during our visit.

The Kakuma Camp has grown, by some reports, to over 300,000 people. Much of it is separated by nationality, housing those from Sudan, Congo, Uganda, Rwanda, Somalia, and other countries. Kalobeyei is the newest camp not far from Kakuma where various people groups live side-by-side. We drove into the new camp our second morning for an outdoor service with a young Africa Gospel Church (AGC) congregation. They do not yet have a building but were given this small space to meet for services. They simply place a piece of canvas on the ground, which becomes their church floor. They hope to acquire a piece of land within the camp along with materials to build a roof and, eventually, walls, as well. The young women below sang and danced during the service. (The youngest was an absolute doll. She sang a little but also looked at bugs on the ground and squeezed in between the older girls to dance.) Many children from the school across the road and the surrounding area came to see us and hear the music. (It’s likely lots of these kids had never seen a mzungu – a white person -before!)

Filed Under: Africa

Visiting Kakuma Refugee Camp, Part I

Posted on March 16, 2018 by Angela @ The Mango Memoirs • 11 Comments

A few months after arriving in Kenya, Pete and I had the unique opportunity to have dinner with Reverend Joseph Ebei and his wife, Ann. Rev Ebei is the area director of Turkana County with the Africa Gospel Church (AGC). Turkana is an enormous area spanning approximately 30,000 square miles of northern Kenya (the size of South Carolina) bordered by Uganda, South Sudan, and Ethiopia. The Ebeis have followed God’s call to the area and have been a part of planting 19 AGC churches in this region over the last few years. Following dinner, we were invited by our WGM field director, Alene Burgert, to help create a vision trip to the northern part of Turkana County in order to learn how WGM can support the work the AGC is already doing in and around the Kakuma Refugee Camp. This is the first post of the vision trip we took last month.

On the morning of February 21, Pete and I joined our field mentors, Steve and Alene Burgert, and our pastor, Reverend Elijah Bii, to fly from an airstrip not far from Tenwek Hospital all the way up to Kakuma near the border of South Sudan. (Most of our trip photos were taken by either Pete or me, but some were taken by Steve, which is why we are in some of the photos! That doesn’t usually happen for us.)

Filed Under: Africa, Faith

Did I forget to mention…We’re home!

Posted on March 9, 2018 by Angela @ The Mango Memoirs • 1 Comment

Did I forget to post that we’re back home in Kenya?? If you’re following our journey on Facebook or Instagram, you’ve already seen us back at Tenwek, but I realized I haven’t posted it here! Sam and I made the long trip back to Kenya last month, arriving around the 15th. It’s hard to know exactly what day it was after all the time changes and jet lag.

Filed Under: Family

Healing

Posted on February 9, 2018 by Angela @ The Mango Memoirs • 1 Comment

It’s hard to believe that Sam and I arrived in Minnesota four weeks ago. We had thought this would be a much shorter visit, but we’re thankful to have been able to get all the medical care Sam has needed. In my previous post, I shared that Sam was scheduled to get his tonsils and adenoids removed and that the ENT would also check his ears at that time. Surgery went well and we’re incredibly happy that Sam simply needed a new set of tubes to fix his hearing. Praise God!