One afternoon during my volunteering experience at OTEPIC in Kitale, Kenya heavy rains set in. It was the onset of the rainy season. We gathered in a small hut on the premise to have lunch in nearly complete darkness. The hut had neither a window nor electricity. After the rain, it had gotten cold and […]
Tag: OTEPIC
Planting Trees. Planting Life.
Trees are life. Trees make life possible. I experience a huge difference between two of the Otepic gardens. Armani garden is very shade thanks to some tall trees, including banana palm trees. Sabwani, on the other hand, is quite hot. Only some of the huts provide some shade. Working on the field under the equatorial […]
Meet the 16 Otepic orphans
16 kids live in the Otepic orphanage. All of them go to school. The orphanage is situated outside of Kitale. The kids live on the ground floor of a house with a large garden. Planting vegetable and fruit in the garden is only possible during the rainy season because there is no water supply for the […]
Kenyan Kids Sing Anthem of South Africa
Have you ever listened to the National Anthem of South Africa? It is a very beautiful song. The kids in the Otepic orphanage sing it just for joy. They don’t understand the language, which is very different from their native tongue. In fact, they were taught that song by a German volunteer. Isn’t that truly international? Here […]
Handmade Bricks
Why buy bricks if you can make them at home? The crew of the ecological project Otepic in Kitale, Northwestern Kenya, makes bricks manually. Without using any electricity. Zero-emission footprint. They want to construct a seminar center in Sabwani Garden, the largest of the three gardens they own. It will be a school for permaculture […]
Heros’ Day in Slum
The air carried a stinging smell of rotting vegetable and animal droppings. I made my way through the dusty roads following Millicent and Lucy, my two new African friends. Sometimes we needed to jump over small canals, half filled with a dark liquid garbage mixture that I did not want my foot to slip into. […]
My New Home in Kitale
My new home in Kitale is a bungalow in the African Theological Seminary. The place is heavily influenced by American evangelists. And Melinda Gates is actually coming here next week. However, it is a very comfortable place: I live in a bungalow with a kitchen. My bedroom has an adjacent bathroom. The bungalow is situated […]