Category Archives: Kenya

The Second Half of our Trip

Posted on by

Since We Departed
a poem of haikus

Driving, big blue box
Games with arms raised high, orange
Two days travel, Kurungu

Rain on the first day,
walking to drink camel chai:
chai with camel milk

Observe story time
Bible shared in the dark night
children singing out

Then we bartered gifts
Just outside the maple home
“two shirts for that please?”

We played Kijabe
and taught the boys some baseball
PK’s face was hit

We did a home stay
Goat was killed for the lost boys
three circumcisions.

Samburu men dance
just by jumping up and down
Traditional chants

Meghan had a party
after we went for a long hike
to a water source

We Departed early
and drove for just four hours
before getting stuck

Eleven hours
and plenty of mud later
the men dug us out

We drove all nightlong
bumping all along the way
loud and painful drive

We stopped to shower
and eat some tasty breakfast
drove through a gamepark

We continued on
Passing the Equator too
and sharing some food

Flew for nine hours
Amsterdam for 5 hours
Flew to LA next

Some team then left us
as we drove our way to hume
back to life in snow

Advertisement

HIM Kenya: Episode Two

Posted on by

Upon reaching Nairobi, we were greeted by our onsite hosts, the Maple Family and driven to a house called Mayfield house where we would be staying. The rest of the day we kept ourselves awake to beat Jet Lag, showered, and explored the city.

We spent the next few days, including Thanksgiving, within these walls. (well, sort of).

The days consisted of preparation for camp, disc golf tourneys, a shopping trip to the Yaya, cribbage, rounds of liars dice, Psalms 7, 17 and team bonding.

Every morning at Mayfield, before breakfast, there is a short devotional. On Thanksgiving morning a Kenya missionary shared with us and then asked his partner to pray for us. His partner closed his prayer with these words “In Jesus Name I pray, and I believe” and I was profoundly impacted. As a team we were struck with his words, and have since adopted them as our own.

In addition to the above mentioned opportunities we also had the privilege of going to the Giraffe park and feeding and kissing Giraffes. We also went to the animal orphanage and pet some kind of feline, I think a cheeta? It was pretty cool. But even more “cool” I think was the conversations I had in the car to and from the parks which touched on families, but mostly what following Jesus has looked like in our lives. It was pretty awesome.

We left Nairobi Friday morning for an hour drive out to Rift Valley Academy (RVA) where we would be running camp. Driving to RVA was also an experience as we listened to “Party in the USA”, “Single Ladies”, and many other american classics… such as Mariah Carey…

HIM KENYA: Episode One

Posted on by

We left Hume at 5am on Monday the 21st of November to embark on a 39 hour travel extravaganza that would land us in Nairobi, Kenya.. Half way around the world. Woo!

Having only received 3 hours of sleep before leaving, and having slept little the week leading up to the trip, I must have been “interesting” company to say the least.

We picked up Brooke in Visalia, and Brittany in Bakersfield, stopping at two walmarts, and other stores in search of luggage locks along the way. A fiesty game of Alphabet left me in last place and kept us entertained as we made our way to Los Angeles.

Once in Los Angeles we stopped to pick up a welding tool for a missionary family and made our way to the airport. We unloaded our equipment and found a good resting spot somewhere in Terminal 5.

After convincing Stuart, our speaker, to join us in Terminal 5, we learned that our departing gate was in Terminal 2. We set off to Taxi all of our luggage to Terminal 2 where we were met by Robbie, George and Kelcie, rounding out our team. Once in the terminal we had a bit of time to kill and grabbed some grub.

The twelve hour flight from Los Angeles to Amsterdam was rather uneventful. I myself was seated near, but not next to, the team. I therefore engaged my seat mates in a few spiritual discussions and learned a bit about them. KLM, our airline, had some pretty fantastic food all things considered and I was pleased with the flight. I just love travel.

When we reached Amsterdam we converted money to Euros (I accidently converted way too much) and gathered our luggage into lockers, making it easier to transverse the city. Amsterdam was overcast, and beautiful.

We were struck with the sheer quantity of bikes. It seems that there must be at least one bike per capita. The canals were exquisite and the crooked buildings had a lot of character.

Most of our team stopped in a pub-like restaurant for some authentic dutch food, which was quite enjoyable.

I found souvenir shopping quite difficult. Most items were tulips, cows, wooden shoes, or inappropriate things… I finally found a mug with pictured buildings that I very much enjoy.

After our 8 hour layover in Amsterdam, we set off on a 9 hour flight that brought us to Nairobi, Kenya. We arrived early morning and spent most of the day staying awake, fighting jet lag.

To be continued…

Will the team fight the sleep deprivation? Will the find solace in their surroundings? Will they shower? Tune in next blog to find out…

KENYA

Posted on by

I learned this morning that we are lagging in our support raising for our trip to Kenya. If anyone is able and willing to help, your support would be encouraging and valuable.

To that end, be praying for the team. We have a full day meeting on Saturday to discuss particulars.