Hello Readers....

    How are you all?

But I really want to write about the righteous anger I have built up inside of me about the corrupt government here in Kenya We had a good week of debrief and then a wonderful 2 weeks on outreach and hopefully I will be able to tell you about that later but right now the corruption here is so heavily on my mind I have to get it out. I really want everyone to be praying as often as they can for the people of Kenya and for the government officials in high places to have a softened heart to its people and stop all the corruption that is going on.

So we have had 2 separate experiences so far with the police and both times it has made me so mad. I find here I have to hold my tongue a lot more than I would at home (sometimes they just can't handle the strong willed American woman that I am).

One day my friend here Reece and I were out in town with our good friend and piki piki driver (this is a motorcycle...main way of transport) Sammie trying to locate a friend that Reece has who was visiting Kenya really close to us. We were driving all around Mbita and looking so hard. Sammie was calling ever pastor and friend he could think of who might be having some muzungus from America working with them but we had no luck. On our way back to town with Sammie the police here who stand guard at random locations stopped Sammie and said "this man is under arrest". There was no reason for him to be under arrest so Reece and I were super confused. Sammie told us to just wait and he followed the officer. And here in Mbita the police just say you are under arrest take the keys from the driver and carry our about their business "patrolling". It is so frustrating and useless. While we stood and waited for Sammie the police officer stopped 5 other drivers just to harass them and for no other reason than to get money from them. This is what the police do here. They stopped you, tell you that you are under arrest and they are going to take you into jail then you bribe them and they let you go. They just pull people over they hardly ever have a reason except they want money. It is so corrupt and so frustrating and that day they pulled Sammie over because he had 2 muzungus on his bike and when they see muzungu they see dollar signs...I just want to shout at them from the top of my lungs "WE HAVE NO MONEY"!!!! AHHHHHHHHH!!!! So Sammie was able to pay him 300 shillings which is about 3 or 4 dollars and they let us go. But oh it made me so mad and they do that stuff all the time here. They piki piki drivers pay a "tax" in the morning to the police office other wise they will have to spend the day in jail so it is easier to pay that "tax" in the morning instead of losing a whole days work.

The other time we had to deal with that was on our way back to Kenya after our debrief week in Uganda. They have yet again random spots on the road where police patrol and they stopped us again said they were going to take our driver to the station so he got out talked with them and paid the stupid bribe that they wanted and we were able to go. But I was so mad they started to get into our car with us and make our driver go to the station and the police had gones like rifles to small hand guns and I was not okay with them being in our car with that. Also the people here have no where to turn to. We have found working with some of the girls in the schools and talking with the teachers that often time's girls can be raped and the man can go to the jail and either pay a bribe to the police or to the family and the man can be let go free. And in some instances it's the police who are doing the raping. So the people here have no where to turn and it breaks my heart to see this. God has put such a passion in my heart to want to help the people here but he has put more of a love in my heart for the corrupt system and for praying for the people who are in charge. Like the president of Kenya and governors and police men. I want to see so much more for the people of Mbita and Kenya and all of Africa...They deserve and need so much more. They need people that they can turn to too help them.

Please remember Kenya in your prayers.

My prayer is that when I go home God will fill me with knowledge of a way I can get back here one day and help stop the corruption. Cause right now my smart mouth and annoyance does not do the trick, but I pray hard for the people and I believe change is coming.

God Bless and I love you all......Thanks for reading

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