Schexnider reflects on mission trip

For the first time in a long time last week, you could find Rotarian Kirk Schexnider sitting and visiting with his fellow club members at lunchtime.
The time apart from the club was due to what has become an annual occurrence for Schexnider, a mission trip to Malawi, Africa, to work with a local orphanage.
When speaking to the Rotary Club of Crowley Tuesday, the man who went two years ago for the first time, worked on projects by himself.
In the past two years, he’s pulled help from the orphanage, making the group a bit more responsible for its own projects.
This year there were a long list of projects, that, of course, got longer when Schexnider arrived in Malawi, including drainage fixes, security improvements, painting, landscaping, furniture building and upholstery and his big project – building a standalone kitchen.
For years, the orphanage’s church would end up being filled with smoke when they cooked. It was, problematic, to say the least.
So through some work before, during and after his trip to Malawi, Schexnider oversaw the building of a new brick, mortar and metal (only) kitchen for the facility.
The old kitchen was gutted and turned into a dining hall and a small serving hall was put in its place.
Schexnider even helped create the design for the new kitchen, which included cross-ventilation windows and was supposed to include a special metal-working device to help remove smoke from the building when cooking through the roof area.
It was supposed to, anyway.
“I had this design set up where we were going to have cross-ventilation,” said Schexnider. “Of course I left them without a roof on. And, for the life of them, they couldn’t figure out how to leave open enough room [these little metal flaps custom made] so they just roofed over the whole thing.”
It will probably have to be fixed next year when he returns, but at the very least, the smoke is no longer in the church.
For Schexnider, it wasn’t all work this trip. He also had personal moments he was proud of. There was the story of little Tabitha, or “Tabby” as she is called, who early on would not go anywhere near missionary visitors of another race. She finally warmed up to Schexnider, hugging him, waving at him and even randomly sitting on his lap during one church service.
Then there was his new nickname. For two years, he was the giant with gold hair and eyes like the sky, this year, it was “bambo” (pronounced bahm-bo). After some time trying to figure out what it meant, he asked and learned that it was one of the area dialect’s most esteemed words meaning “gentle man who’s a protector of all.”
Schexnider also got the girls to help out this year, which he was extremely happy about as well.