Got some news on my birthday today, which is the most inspiring gift ever.
In 1993 I was working for Samaritan's Purse Canada and had 'escaped' out of Mogadishu Somalia to Kenya, when Franklin Graham asked me to set up an African office in Nairobi. I said OK and built out a guest house to ferry volunteers, and an office to coordinate supplies into Somalia and Sudan. I also started discussions with UN members to start Samaritan Purses' Rwanda work.
Those were some pretty dark days as one might imagine (my brain starts spinning to even *think* about watching the movie Black Hawk Down: can you say a touch of PTSD? Not enough to mess up my life but I do see a Loomis truck in a parking lot, scan for trouble and park by the *other* entrance to the store.) The year and a half in E. Africa was very hard, but I'm proud of what I began. One of those first staff was Benson. He continues to work there today, and proved he was a man of integrity in those early days.
I was honoured to be included in a plan with Scott Hughett and John Clayton to privately provide some funds for Benson to build a greenhouse and sell tomatoes off season. John told me:
Benson told me, 'I know how to grow things'. He is growing tomatoes - I ate one, it was delicious. The challenge isn't growing them, it is growing them at the right time to hit the market. The 20L bucket can sell for either 200ksh ($2.50) or 2,000ksh (yeah - $25!), depending on the season - it's all about timing.
He also said:
His home is a 4 hour bus ride to work each day (it was a 2hr taxi ride each way), yes he gets up just after 4am each day to get to work. He told me that he hopes to be self sufficient in just a couple more years and will move completely to farming, and yes perhaps sleeping in occasionally. . .
Benson is totally inspiring for me. A guy with very little in the way of resources living with integrity and hard work allowed me to help, which is such an honour! I can't imagine what it would take to do what he has done. Look at that picture! That is the picture of someone owning his life with wisdom and strength of character. Talk about a guy adding live and liveliness, not taking it away.
Thanks for the great birthday gift of inspiration and food for thought Benson!
