June 2009 Trip Update 1

After a long and uneventful series of flights from Austin to Kenya, we arrived in Nairobi at 7 PM. After collecting our bags and heading outside we were greeted by our Music for Life hosts Sally and Mwai as expected. As a special treat Leslie's brother Danny (or Uncle Danny as he is more commonly referred to here) was also waiting at the airport to greet us with four friends from his orphanage outside Ngong. They had made the hour+ jouney into Nairobi on a Muttata (think VW van with fourteen or more passengers crammed into it).

We grabbed a little Chinese takeout for dinner and headed to the Music for Life offices in Nairobi where we are staying. MFL has recently leased a big house in Nairobi as its new office headquarters and it is nicely setup to host guests. After some socializing and eating we were both ready to turn in and try to get our body clocks on African time.

On Sunday morning we began our work in earnest and started with a meeting and brainstorming session with the leaders of Music for Life in Kenya. I want to take a minute here to share with you the stories of the people working with Music for Life. First and foremost our host Sally. Sally has been working for Music for Life for 25 years. She is a Saint who was truly sent here by God to help the children of Africa. During dinner, Robert and I cajoled her to share her story and it is fascinating. She is originally from the UK and started out fresh from college as a chaperone for the first African Childrens Choir. The first choir was forced to do an extended tour due to a series of coups in Uganda during the tour, so they brought the choir to Holland and stayed on the road for an extra 6 months - this after an almost 15 month tour. In Sally's own words she never intended to come to Africa. One night while in Holland she just had a feeling she should get her shots from a travel clinic in case she needed to assist the choir in getting home. Shortly thereafter, MFL asked her if she would help bring the choir home because the airlines wouldn't allow 30 children to travel with only 1 chaperone. Sally bought a one-way open ended ticket to Uganda and has never really looked back. In 25 years with MFL, she has toured with numerous choirs, helped run refugee camps in Sudan for the Lost Boys, assisted in Rwanda after the genecide and helped to manage the MFL operation in Africa. As she put it you don't always know what God wants you to do in life but if you follow his lead, he can work through your life.

Our second MFL host is Mwai, a native Kenyan who has been working with MFL in Kenya for about 15 years. For starters Mwai is a big man of about 6'3", but his personality is truly larger than life. He has an aura about him that is inspiring and makes you want to hang around him more and soak in some of his positive energy. I have never seen or heard anyone give a better impromptu prayer before our meals, at our meetings, etc. He is doing God's work the way God intended it to be done. This big hulking guy also has a heart of gold and this can be seen whenever the kids are around. He has a way with children. During our trip to the orphanage, the kids swarm to him and he has an incredible ability to give love and a piece of his energy to each and every one of them.

Our other two hosts, David and Jerusha are former MFL students and choir members from some of the earlier choirs. These two young adults are a testimony to what the choir can do for these children. David was selected for the choir from the Kybera slums and Jerusha was selected from a small rural village. They have both finished college educations and are giving back to MFL through their work with the organization. They are articulate, thoughtful, dedicated and young leaders growing into their full potential. Their natural leadership ability is evident the next day when some of the younger MFL kids come to meet with Robert and I about starting businesses. It is clear these young people look up to David and Jerusha and see them as leaders in the organization.

Our meeting with Sally, Mwai, David and Jerusha is lively, with lots of dicussion about what we are trying to do, how we envision the Work for Life Initiative coming together, how we can work with the kids over the next few days and what might be MFL's role in the future. Robert and I are taking a very open-minded approach and here to discover what is needed, how it can best be delivered, etc. After 3 hours of discussion about our project, I think everyone is comfortable with where we are going and how we intend to work with the young Africans coming to meet with us on Tuesday. The MFL team doesn't look at their work as a job, but rather treats these kids like family and like any good father or mother, Uncle Mwai and Aunty Sally (that's what all the kids call them) are very protective of their brood of about 800 choir kids.