We're In Kenya!

Hujambo!  This means hello in Swahili. 

We're in Kenya!!  

We left Doha at about 2:30AM this morning.  We all boarded with our bodies not sure what time it was.  It was still extremely hot outside even at 2 in the morning and completely dry heat.  Once boarded we all thought we would be ready to pass out.  I ended up watching a movie and probably ended up getting about 2.5 hours of sleep but many people were able to sleep most of the second flight.  We landed in Nairobi around 7AM.  It is difficult to describe the feelings that I had when we landed in Africa.  While I do not want this trip to be about me at all I have to say that I was overwhelmed with emotions as I felt a dream I have always had was coming true.  More importantly though I believe those feelings were more about the Holy Spirit reminding me that God placed me here for a reason.  I also had feelings of thanksgiving that God had provided for safe travel and the opportunity to serve Him.  As I mentioned in the first post, I am so unworthy to serve Christ but I am so grateful for His abounding love and grace in making me whole in Him and being able to serve through that.  

Walking off the plane it was kind of chilly and cloudy.  It's winter here right now so the weather is cooler.  Today was nothing like what many back home think of Africa.  It was probably in the 50's and very cloudy.  We were ready to be off a plane for a while.  We all got our Visas and Praise the Lord that all of our luggage arrived.  I had a brief fright as my bag wasn't with the rest of the group bags when I first got to baggage claim, but it just had not been picked up off the belt.  Tim and Jody Jackson met us at the airport.  Tim and Jody are members of the Summit who moved to Kenya in January and are on staff with Uhuru Child.  They had a bus to drive us to Brackenhurst where we are staying for the week. Our luggage was loaded on top of the van and we were ready to head out into Kenya.  It was interesting that one of the first things I saw as we walked into the parking lot was a Bible.  There was one in the front window of one of the cars.  If nothing else this certainly showed that the Lord is present here.  

Our drive to Brackenhurst was by far one of the most interesting experiences of my life.  To begin with the traffic was insane.  It took us over an hour to drive what might have been 2 miles.  The roads are not the best with narrow lanes and large potholes and drivers are definitely defensive.  There were buses and Mercedes off-roading on the shoulder.  Many people walked the road (and probably beat us to wherever they were going) as well as biked.  Once out of the traffic we began to see the city of Nairobi.  There were many restaurants and bar combos, a ton of car washes, butcher shops, hardware stores, and other small shops.  I have never seen anything quite like it.  While a part of me thought how fortunate we are the bigger part of me noticed the smiles on the people's faces and my arrogance in thinking that they are "in need."  While they certainly have material needs, as I have been reading through When Helping Hurts I have come to see that reconciliation in relationships is their biggest need.  A few interesting observations were the number of people sitting around outside the stores--jobs appear to be the need much more than material things, the animals roaming around were interesting to me as well. Having cows in my backyard growing up and experiencing chasing the cows back into the pasture it was strange to see cows and donkeys and goats on the side of the road.  Another interesting observation were the size and number of nice large houses.  You could see the enormous disparity just in our hour drive.  While there were shacks all along the way with these fruit stands and trash piles and animals roaming free there were also large houses on the hills just beyond.  Many of these houses were gated and had great detail in their exterior.  We also passed tea fields along the way which isn't something you see in North Carolina. 

We arrived at Brackenhurst Convention Center and had a few minutes to change and eat lunch.  Most of us are staying in the Team House here at Brackenhurst.  There are several rooms within the house with small bunk-like beds, 2 bathrooms, a kitchen, and a living room/common area.  Brackenhurst also has private rooms which a few of the married couples are staying in and a nice lodge with a gift shop, cafe, dining room, and common area.  The common area has a fireplace which we are all congregating around right now as I write this.  It is an awesome place to stay.  Showers were a bit of a challenge because the water only trickled down, but Mr. Ron Meece played handy man and fixed the shower head.  

But now to the BEST part of the day!  We went to the Uhuru Academy, the all-girls boarding school started here in Uhuru.  We spent the afternoon there doing work on the school.  When we first arrived we met the 21 girls at the school and then took a tour.  Once we had toured the school we split into 2 groups and started to work.  We were all extremely exhausted at this point but with it being such a short trip we did not want to miss the opportunity to serve.  One group used sledgehammers and worked on demolishing a toilet (an entire bathroom...not just one single toilet :)). The rest of us worked on repairing the long driveway up to the school.  As I said earlier, the roads here are pretty bad and this was no different for the driveway.  There were huge potholes all along the drive and in fact our bus got stuck on the way up.  We had to mix the cement with shovels.  We had a huge pile of sand, a pile of gravel, and 4 bags of cement mix.  We mixed the cement in a pit area and then poured it with a wheelbarrow into the potholes.  It was no easy task (nor was the demolition going on with the other group).  I am sure I will wake up tomorrow with some soreness in my back and shoulders...and a few blisters.  We were able to fill many of the rough spots, but it could use a little more work.  It was a great experience though as I got to spend time with our group leader, Darin and the Uhuru Child staff member, Joe.  Joe and Caitlin live here in Kenya and run the school.  They both seem like awesome people and Joe was really fun to work with.  About halfway through the cement pour the "foodstuffs" arrived and the vehicle could not get up the hill due to the wet cement.  This meant we carried these bags up the hill to the kitchen....bags of potatoes, vegetables, flour, and such.  After that we all felt we had gotten in our workout for the day.  

My favorite part of our day at Uhuru Academy was spending time with the girls.  These are high school age girls--freshmen and sophomores--or Form 1 and Form 2 as they call it here.  We sat in on their music session and it was so much fun.  You could see God's love on each of their faces.  I talked with a few of them before we got started--one's name was Rochelle.  She had the biggest smile that made my day.  They led us in learning a song in Swahili.  We clapped and sang together.  It was a song about how good God is.  The lyrics are: "Wamilele, wamilele mungu wa, baraka ysu nani." After teaching us this song they chose a song to sing to us as a gift.  It too was incredible.  They were so passionate, with drums and cheers.  They also taught us to clap as they do.  It was so cool to hear us all sing praise to God in their language.  Our God is the God of the world, of all people. So often I get caught in my little bubble and fail to recognize how big the world is and how powerful our God is.  He rules over all the world and all the world bows at His feet and praises His name.  What a might God we serve and how awesome it is to come together with 21 girls all the way in Kenya to sing a song to Him.  

We headed back to Brackenhurst for the night after the music session.  It has been a LONG day.  Or more like a LONG 3 days.  We're all exhausted and ready for bed.  At this point almost everyone has headed to bed as I wrap up this post.  Sorry again for the length....there was so much to tell about our first day here in Kenya! We head to the village of Jikaze tomorrow and get paired up with our family for the week.  I ask that you continue to pray with my to work in the heart of the people here, the hearts of our group, and that He be glorified through it all.  God is here in Kenya, He is present, and He is at work in alleviating poverty here by His name. 

(There are many more photos to show when I get home...but I wanted to share a few here)