Kenya || Part 1

"Dear Jeggings,

You rock my world!"

Yes, I actually wrote that down in my journal as I sat in the Nairobi airport waiting for my last flight before we reached our destination in Kenya. After driving to Albuquerque (3hrs), flying to Dallas (1.5hrs), sitting on the tarmac in Dallas (3hrs), flying to London (9.5hrs), a mad dash tour of Windsor (2ish hrs), flying to Nairobi (8.5hrs), and then flying to Kisumu (1hr), I added 3 things to my list of Travel Must Haves: 

1. Jeggings- you can be totally comfortable, and still look decent (ish) when you get off the plane. Plus, they fold up quite tiny, so they are an efficient use of space. 

2. Face wipes. There's something about airplane air that's a little eww after a few hours, and completely gross after 10 (or 20+ as the case may be...). Having a face wipe or 2 on hand to clean off the grime helps immensely. 

3. Travel pillow. Yep, I'm one of those people now. I bought a travel pillow before I left from http://www.comfycommuter.com and was very pleased with my purchase. I feel like the embarrassment factor is relatively low for this pillow, but the comfort was fairly high. It squishes up pretty well so it fits in your carry on, and the front strap keeps you from doing that embarrassing head nod thing as you doze off. Sad times for me though- my pillow didn't make it home with me. I think it ran away from me on the last flight home- somehow it didn't end up back in my bag... stupid. 

Back to the Nairobi airport- there I was, feeling pretty groggy (We left the states on Friday evening, and arrived in Kenya at 5:30ish am on Sunday), and still trying to wrap my mind around the fact that I was in Africa!!! While we waited, I pulled out my journal and started the trip documentation. I was nervous. Not in the I'm afraid I'll get homesick, or I'm afraid of the bugs, or I'm scared of weird food kind of way, but I was fighting apprehension about the trip. This may sound weird especially after the last post, but between signing up for the trip, and leaving, I had serious doubts about whether or not I made the right decision. I questioned my motives for signing up. I worried about the projects our team had planned and whether or not they would be sustainable. I was anxious about our team, because I wanted us to be as effective as possible, and really see some amazing growth together. I talked to a sweet friend of mine a few weeks before going, and shared some of my misgivings and concerns with her. She listened to me patiently, and then shared some of the best advice I've heard in a long time. She acknowledged that maybe the trip wouldn't turn out to be what I had anticipated, but then she said, "At the end of the day, all we're really called to do is love God well, and love others well, and you can do that in Kenya." That became my prayer for the trip, and my encouragement even when there were things that surprised me, or things that I wished had turned out a little differently. She's right. At the end of the day our task is simple- but difficult. Love God. Love others. That was my plan for Kenya. 

Arrival in Kisumu saw us picked up at the airport by our fabulous drivers. The whole time we were there, we were towed around by some pretty awesome guys who navigated the Kenya roadways (not an easy task by any stretch of the imagination), managed to find our work sites even when they were in the middle of a sugarcane field, and always delivered us safely home in the evening. Btw- these vans we were jetting around in- over 300,000 miles on them. These are vans that drive over roads that make New Mexico oilfield roads look smooth. You think your jeep can go off road? These vans do off road like you've never seen, and these drivers manage to maneuver cattle, motorcycles, pedestrians, wheelbarrows, road construction, speed bumps, and whatever else happens to be in the street, without breaking a sweat! Impressive doesn't even begin to cut it. 

One of our fabulous drivers, Saidi. This guy has mad, mad skills!

We got to Kisumu around breakfast time, and some of us were able to head out for a church dedication. Even though I was seriously fighting sleep on the way to the site, I'm so glad I decided to go. It was so special to be there with those people. They had been meeting under a tree until they got their building, and being with them to dedicate their new building to God was so awesome. We sang together, and prayed together, and joined hands around the church to dedicate it to God's glory. It's things like that where language doesn't matter. 

The next day was our first real day of work. We split up into teams, and headed out to start work on the houses. You start out by marking off the space, and digging holes in the ground about an arm's length deep. No measuring tapes, we just used a stick to make sure the holes were deep enough. After all the holes are dug, you put in the posts that make the framework for the walls. At this point, the people we had working with us would start work on the roof, while our team would start adding the thin branches that created the walls. You nail the thin branches horizontally across the framework all around the outside, then on the inside, and fill the space with mud at the very end. The mud dries super hard, almost like an adobe house here at home. 

My sister recently got back from a mission trip to Turks and Caicos, and while she was there, she was given the compliment that she worked like a Haitian man. Not gonna lie- there was a little part of me that was hoping I would be told I worked like a Kenyan man on this trip. Ha! Not even close. I found out that I'm really, really bad at hammering. A nail that would take me like 35 hits to pound in, would take one of those guys like 2. Maybe 3, if they were taking it easy. I hit my thumb twice, which, all things considered, is probably a lot less than it could have been. Here's a few photos from the first day's work. 

The best parts about that day, and really the whole trip, were the amazing people we met. These villagers have next to nothing- definitely no surplus of food, and yet they opened their homes to us, and fed us lunch everyday. They are so willing to share whatever they have, and share of themselves. Everyone we met was incredibly thankful, and quick to praise God for the way He had provided for them. It was a special opportunity to be a part of His work with our brothers and sisters who live so far away. 

A little self documentation in Kenya

I think this chicken looks disturbed because we probably ate his mom for lunch. 

Sorry, chick!

These are beautiful people. 

Love the light in his eyes

Pretty girl!

More soon, peeps! 

~jasmine