Our first day in Africa – guest post and photos by Josh Donald

The Great Rift Valley

Owner of a hardware store in Narok. Seemed to be a very straight shooter.

We didn’t purchase any of this pipe but I was impressed with it.

Mery and Ellen Freed shopping.

Our Maasai friend and driver Julius. He is quite a character and has an amazing story of being attacked by a lion and living to tell about it. I’m glad he seems to like us because I don’t think I would want to get on his bad side!

Our first day in Africa was spent in Nairobi procuring supplies for our water project. James Origa, a water engineer from Africa with a Christ-centered heart for giving, led Denny Freed and I through this process. I like most cities for a couple of days but the sheer business, language barrier and congestion of Nairobi left me looking for a way out after a couple of hours! Cows are always present and walked right through the busy hardware store parking lot and out onto the highway. Due to a 4 year drought, the city cows were generally a lot fatter than their rural counterparts. The next day we hit the road with our driver Julius for the Maasai Mara. We stopped for some shopping at the edge of the Great Rift Valley. It was pretty great. Empopongi is only 140 miles from Nairobi but the roads are so bad it basically took 9 hours to get there. We arrived just in time for the sunset. We were tired but excited. Africa’s big skies felt familiar and comforting.  

Cows hanging out in the city.

Montana on a Mission is fundraising for this water project.  We need around $30,000 to bring clean water to a community of several thousand people, the school (600 students) and a new health clinic. If you would like to contribute please visit www.montanaonamission.org/donate