Matt and Cheryl in Kenya

9th September, 2009 - Posted by Camille Cotton -

Two very good friends of Open Arms International, Matt and Cheryl Tallman, have just arrived in Kenya, where they are spending one year as missionaries with OAI. They arrived in Nairobi on Sunday evening and got to spend the next day exploring Nairobi before hopping on a plane to Eldoret.

“We’ve spent the last two days unpacking, recovering from jet lag, visiting the Village, and helping take care of the three newest members of the Open Arms Village. Today we had a site meeting with the foremen on the construction of the Village (they have been making quite a bit of progress on the orphanage homes - it looks like the first one will be completed within the next week or two, and two other homes will be completed within the next month). We also met with the District Commissioner of Eldoret about the possibility of starting a school at the Village, and he gave us some helpful advice along with assuring us that we would be able to start the school in January (the earliest we had hoped to start the school). On the way out to the site, we had a hilarious conversation with the project manager, Andrew Kiptoo, about the custom of polygamy in Kenya. He asked what I thought about gaining a second wife while he was here in Kenya and then he proceeded to tell Cheryl that according to Kenyan custom, she could choose who my second wife would be. I then proceeded to ask Cheryl who she would choose, and she informed me that she would choose someone who would make my life miserable!”

Keep checking in for more updates about their adventures in Kenya!