July 2009
1 post
Simbas and Punda Milias and Twigas-Oh my!
After taking the advice from a wise source I decided to blog just a little bit more, however we are going back in time here and this is one of my longer posts so sorry about that. I also have a blog post or two left, one of which is just a hilarious story that would only happen to me. Also while re-reading this while typing, I thought I should make a “Monk List” in which I list all the...
June 2009
48 posts
A Learning Experience
I thought that we were going to Kenya to teach, but I have learn so much from these people, who have very little. We thought we were being prepare, but everything is so different when you see it with your own eyes. No amount of preparation could cushion the blows of the real thing. I saw things that books or magazines couldn’t describe fully. We thought we were walking into a war zone, but...
If things got better...
While we were wandering the streets of Eastliegh to see where the Conways work. Some one asked Larry, if Kenya had a better government and they fixed up all the building and streets would things here get better. The answer that was given shocked me, he said ” No, they people of Kenya are so used to living like this that they would tear down and destroy the new buildings” How can you...
Laughing at Death's Face
One thing that I have not been able to forget, was when we were at Busia to visit an orphanage, the widows there were always laughing even when things were serious. All of the widows living at the orphanage were HIV positive, they knew they didn’t have very long to live. When they were asked what is their dream for life, they said “To make sure these orphans have a future, a chance to...
Reflecting on prayers of thanksgiving
I don’t believe that I fully understood what it meant to say the prayer giving thanks to God before we eat a meal until this trip to Kenya. I have heard all of my life the little jokes about saying the prayer before the meal as if it were just something you had to do. For example a prayer such as: ” Dear God thank you for this meal now let’s eat!” Now when we were in Kenya,...
Outside the Gates
After doing all of our VBSs and visiting MITS, the faces of the kids standing outside the closed gates will always remain in my mind. I want so badly to take care of every hurting kid in Kenya but there is too great of an amount to be able to without going crazy. I had been wondering about this ever since our first full day in Kenya and apparently some others on our team did as well and one person...
"Snapshot"
On our last day in Kenya during our debriefing session, Stephen Greek requested that we all share a snapshot of our time Kenya. My snapshot was more of a snap slideshow or video. This journey was my first trip to venture outside of the United States and what an amazing first journey to have anyways what I felt my “snapshot” was was the beautiful scenery of the country. My eyes, once...
Unforgettable
Having a few moments to relax gives me the opportunity to reflect on our trip to Kenya so I thought it would be fun to share just a few of the moments that I will never forget.
Conversations:
Steve: “Otsieno, why are those big stones there?”
Otsieno: “I don’t know, ask God.”
After taking a wrong turn a man who was to take us the right way found us and said:...
Last Day in Kenya
On Tuesday we headed to Niarobi after breakfast, which is about 3 hours from Nakuru. During the drive I suffered another migraine attack. Once we got to Niarobi we went to Westgate, which is like an American mall but on the roof they had a market set up. I groaned once I heard about the market, because of our bad experience the other day. After we ate lunch at the mall, I felt somewhat better. We...
Day of Rest (Sorta)
On Monday we got up at 5 in the morning to head to Nakuru, which is a 3 hour drive from Eldoret. We stopped at the Equator to get some pictures. When we arrived at Nakuru wee unloaded the van and got ready to go to the Wildlife Reserve. Before we went to the Reserve we stopped at a market place. I really hate big crowds, this experience was horrible. We were surrounded by many people trying to...
Twiga(giraffe)
Today we had our Youth Rally, when we woke up we were really nervous and still feeling a little sick from the ride all the way to Eldoret, Zach had just gotten over another migriane attack and Whitney had just gotten over topeka-ing several times( topeka is a swahili word if you want to know what it means ask Whitney in person). Keith Gaffner picked us up at 8 and we headed to Twiga’s...
Topeka!
Friday June 19, 2009
This morning we woke up to the beautiful call of the rooster…at 5:30 in the morning! We got up, got dressed and went out into the courtyard of this orphanage where in the center stood a well that was built due to some pretty serious incidents. I won’t go any further in details. We watched the people turn the well handle to produce water to a spicket for a good 30...
Travel stops
Thursday June 18, 2009
Today we drove to Busia. Along the way we stopped at an orphanage that seemed to be doing well: The Golf Course Road CoC Orphanage. The system of how things were run was extremely impressive from the living quarters to the kitchen area to the nurses station. After having a small lunch there( in Africa when guests come to visit it is appropriate to offer food or chai) so we...
Feelin' puny
Wednesday June 17, 2009
This morning didn’t start out too well for me, I was ill and running a fever but I got some medicine in me and drank a ton of water and gradually Started to feel better at 11 or so. I have been waiting for a call from someone so I can get out of this jail cell(the room), being stuck inside while in Kenya is not a pleasant experience and I am ready to get out of here!...
Where's the matatu with my water...and my bag???
Tuesday June 16, 2009
Today was the day that we had our VBS fot the children at the school across from Sam’s Place. It was a ton of fun: we sang songs, learned some signs, played games, played with bubbles, made hats and made handprint t-shirts! It was a fun filled day! When we were making the hand print t-shirts I was in charge of cleaning off the kids’ hands so by the end of the day...
Monday June 15, 2009
This morning we finally got to go to Sam’s Place! It was an exciting adventure because we had seen it all on video already but we actually saw it with our own eyes- it was wonderful! However the morning that started out so wonderfully slowly progressed into sorrow. Right next door to Sam’s Place is a school/orphanage that we visited, the kids were amazing- they...
Playing Catch-up
So as of wednesday we are back in the USA! But by the look of the blog you can probably tell that we are a bit behind, but I have been keeping a running written journal of the trip and I finally had time to type the entries up. I will be posting quite a few tonight and some in the next few days so be looking for them! Sorry for another delay in writings!!
-Whitney
Why the Silence?
We are totally sorry for leaving you guys in the dark for the last 4 days. We had ran into a few complications in the past few days. We had to deal with being sick, having no service at the mud hut we stayed at, getting sick again, and not being able to get service where we were staying at. So we are trying to get caught up and we apologize for the delay. So there will be several blog posts in the...
Sam's Place VBS Day 2
On this day we went back to Sam’s Place, for day 2 of VBS. This day was pretty short, for Whitney had gotten sick, when we arrived I had to tape the children pictures to their frames, while Jeff was singing with the kids. Then we had a short puppet show and read a story to them. Then it was snack time, after that we sang some more and released the kids for lunch. We went back to the guest...
Sam's Place VBS Day 1
Today we had day 1 of our 2 day VBS, things went surprisingly smoothly. We got to Sam’s Place at like 8 this morning and started to prepare. We walked to the neighboring school and marched with the kids to Sam’s Place, the kids were singing all the way there. It wasn’t very far, its less than half a mile.
The first thing we did with the kids was sing several songs and teach...
The First Sight of Sam's Place and It's Neighbors
Today was a whole lot better! But in a way it was kind of sad. We started off this morning at 8, but we couldn’t leave for Sam’s Place until Simeon arrived. During our wait me and Whitney got to speak with both our drivers about the differences of our countries. Once Simeon arrived we drove to Sam’s Place, our driver, Joseph, showed some extreme driving skills when we had to go...
Bitter Tastes of the Mouth and Heart
Day of Sunday June 14, 2009
Today we went to the KDPL church service where 10 people were baptized! It was wonderful. The day was taken up mostly by the church service, the baptisms and lunch and after that it was time to leave Siriat to go to Rongo. I do have an interesting story I would like to share however: It was time for communion and I knew to expect wine instead of grape juice to be used...
Darling faces
Day of Saturday June 13, 2009
This was the day that we tested out the children’s camp that we were preparing for Sam’s Place and I am so glad we did because it didn’t go too smoothly. We started the day with 5 children and we had some singing, then a puppet show and then, well, we made hats. The number of children gradually kept multiplying as we went from making hats to playing...
The summation of the trip...so far (for Mitch)
The day finally arrived.
I couldn’t fully comprehend what was going on when I was checking in my luggage at Dallas/Ft. Worth international. A lady at the check-in desk was asking a variety of questions concerning my international travels and there I was, responding with that android response of yes or no. What did that whole international part mean anyway? Was it the fact that there...
A Chaotic Weekend
I am running out of patience with the computers we have, I just spent 2 hours trying get this blog post up only to have to write it all over again!!
The last 2 days have been crazy!! In Siriat ( I spelled the name wrong in the last blog post) our attempt to do a VBS was chaotic! We continuously ran into communication problems. Even though we had 4 very helpful girls there we still had difficulty...
Language Barriers
This title is basically the description of our journey in Kenya and I have grown up all my life at Sth 11th and Willis CoC where the people vary in languages yet I never have taken the time to figure out any other languages besides English so here is my story of the day(this was just a preface):
Siriat(and the drive)
We have been so busy lately that I have not...
A Visit to a Deaf Church
I was kept up almost all night last night by the sound of buzzing mosquitoes in my room. But we had a good breakfast and started to go to our next destination. A Deaf church in Sireat ( I don’t think I spelled that right). The drive was a long one, but we had a nice scenic route. Our Driver Joseph, such a cool dude, would tell us everything he knew about the cities we past through or the...
A Warm Welcome
Today we left the guest house in Nairobi in order to continue on with our journey however the day started with a few complications. First off our driver, Joseph-who is amazing, was in a wreck earlier this morning which is quite believable due to the fact that there is so much traffic and not a whole lot of guidance for which vehicle gets to go first, anyway because of this we had to get a new...
An Eye Opening Beauty
Today was one of the most fascinating days of my life. The morning started out horribly, the coldest shower in my life, chaotic packing of the matatus, no Internet access, and you know the works. I also found out that the sour cream in Kenya isn’t really sour cream, it’s more like a soured milk, so I got sick this morning. But after the chaotic events were over and we got on the...
A Day at the MITS Farm and School
Today we got to go see the Made In the Streets farm and school. When we got there we were given a tour by Joel and Francis. We got to see each class room and what the they are taught in each room. I got to ask questions to the computer lab teacher. I questioned him about what the students learn there and if they are taught how to make computer repair. The teacher told me that they would like to...
Truly heartbreaking
June 9 Nairobi/Eastleigh
Today was definitely a suprise, last night we drove through Nairobi and the scenery was beautiful, the stores were very modern, and the guest house we are at for now is extremely nice! And then we drove to the Made in the Streets location and it was completely different. The streets were in terrible condition with mud and muck running through it and these are the streets...
Learning of Gratitude in Kenya
The first day we were in Kenya we got to visit Made in the Streets (M.I.T.S.). Holly Conway’s sister was running a VBS, so we got to participate in helping her run it. The kids that came to the VBS were kids who lived in the slums in horrible conditions. these kids were so thrilled about being able to do some things they had never done before. Small thing would create huge smiles on their...
Journey to Africa
June 7 and 8
This trip so far has already been one big adventure just going through airport security and making sure we have our tickets and making sure we have our passports and trying to get to our gate in time to board, it’s been crazy!! Here’s just one of those crazy stories: We had just arrived to the Dallas airport when we were informed that all of our carry on liquids had to...