Jambo!!
I am made it back from a life changing trip in Kenya! I will be posting a few blog posts about stories that happened there but first I wanted to give you all an overview/timeline of what I did everyday over there
July 7 - We landed at 2 in the morning! As we are all waiting to get our luggage we notice that no new luggage is coming out. Hmmmm what is wrong?? Yeah well all 90 of us lost our luggage. Our flight out of LAX was delayed which made us have to rush to our next plane in Turkey. The airport personnel decided they did not have time to transfer our luggage to the next plan which ended up for us not getting our luggage.
We got like an hour of sleep and then we had to wake up and start our day. We went to pangani which is the main school we worked at. We were greeted and had an opening ceremony from all of the kids. Then we got to take a social worker and walk around the Mathare Valley. We were able to go into one of the shanty's and pray over a sick girl and her cousin that ended up having CP like me! It was an incredible first experience!
July 8 - we went to Joska, an all female high school boarding school. We again got welcomed by an awesome opening ceremony. We then did a presentation for them called Days for Girls which talks about the woman's menstrual cycle and we got to pass out reusable period pads for all the girls!! We also got to pass out hamburgers for lunch to the local elementary school and have fellowship with the high school girls.
July 9 - church. We went to a tiny church located in the slums. The pastor was very passionate and all of the church members got to receive a bag of food products (flour, sugar, rice, porridge, soap). We then went to a local flea market, which was quite the experience. A lot of bargaining went on haha.
July 10 - home visits! We had 3 social workers and were able to go into 5 different shanty's and bring them food bags and solar lights. The cool thing about the solar lights is they last long and it charges your phone which could be made into a business for the individuals by charging money for the locals to charge their phone. We got to pray over the families and just show them God's love.
That night we went to an Ethiopian restaurant. You can only eat with your hands and they put the food all on one platter. I tried goat for the first time which was kind of chewy if I'm honest.
July 11 - we got to fly out to Turkana which is where half of our big team went for the week. It is quite different from Mathare Valley. They had straw huts, more desert like, and a lot more tribal people. I unfortunately was severely dehydrated from the day before and so I had to drink 10 bottles of water and hang out inside at the school all day but the rest of my team got to work on building a house for one of the local families.
July 12 - took the 7th graders on a safari! They had to take notes on what the saw for their class and it was so awesome to see their reactions to all the different animals. We got to see lions eating a wild buffalo!
July 13 - my favorite day of the whole trip! God works in beautiful ways and he gave me the opportunity to go into 8 different homes that had individuals with disabilities. I will be posting more about this later but it was so awesome to inspire them to not be ashamed of their disability and to give them hope that their child can be loved and successful.
July 14 - closing ceremony at the school and a celebration dinner for all the staff that works at the school and with the Missions of Hope organization.
July 15 - woman's conference day for 500 local woman. I got to share my testimony and bring light to being a successful disabled individual (more about this later)
July 16 - last day in Kenya. Got to go to a different bigger church and two of our team members got to speak. Then we put on a BBQ for the team members who sponsor a child there. They got to eat and spend time with their sponsor child and his/her family!
July 17 - left at 1 am to go to the airport and start our 30 hour adventure back home!
As you can see our trip was packed to the brim and I had so many amazing moments in this beautiful country. I met incredible individuals and got to see the joy the people possess even though their circumstances are rough. It was a once in a lifetime opportunity!
I am made it back from a life changing trip in Kenya! I will be posting a few blog posts about stories that happened there but first I wanted to give you all an overview/timeline of what I did everyday over there
July 7 - We landed at 2 in the morning! As we are all waiting to get our luggage we notice that no new luggage is coming out. Hmmmm what is wrong?? Yeah well all 90 of us lost our luggage. Our flight out of LAX was delayed which made us have to rush to our next plane in Turkey. The airport personnel decided they did not have time to transfer our luggage to the next plan which ended up for us not getting our luggage.
We got like an hour of sleep and then we had to wake up and start our day. We went to pangani which is the main school we worked at. We were greeted and had an opening ceremony from all of the kids. Then we got to take a social worker and walk around the Mathare Valley. We were able to go into one of the shanty's and pray over a sick girl and her cousin that ended up having CP like me! It was an incredible first experience!July 8 - we went to Joska, an all female high school boarding school. We again got welcomed by an awesome opening ceremony. We then did a presentation for them called Days for Girls which talks about the woman's menstrual cycle and we got to pass out reusable period pads for all the girls!! We also got to pass out hamburgers for lunch to the local elementary school and have fellowship with the high school girls.
July 9 - church. We went to a tiny church located in the slums. The pastor was very passionate and all of the church members got to receive a bag of food products (flour, sugar, rice, porridge, soap). We then went to a local flea market, which was quite the experience. A lot of bargaining went on haha.
July 10 - home visits! We had 3 social workers and were able to go into 5 different shanty's and bring them food bags and solar lights. The cool thing about the solar lights is they last long and it charges your phone which could be made into a business for the individuals by charging money for the locals to charge their phone. We got to pray over the families and just show them God's love.
That night we went to an Ethiopian restaurant. You can only eat with your hands and they put the food all on one platter. I tried goat for the first time which was kind of chewy if I'm honest.
July 11 - we got to fly out to Turkana which is where half of our big team went for the week. It is quite different from Mathare Valley. They had straw huts, more desert like, and a lot more tribal people. I unfortunately was severely dehydrated from the day before and so I had to drink 10 bottles of water and hang out inside at the school all day but the rest of my team got to work on building a house for one of the local families.
July 12 - took the 7th graders on a safari! They had to take notes on what the saw for their class and it was so awesome to see their reactions to all the different animals. We got to see lions eating a wild buffalo!
July 14 - closing ceremony at the school and a celebration dinner for all the staff that works at the school and with the Missions of Hope organization.
July 15 - woman's conference day for 500 local woman. I got to share my testimony and bring light to being a successful disabled individual (more about this later)
July 16 - last day in Kenya. Got to go to a different bigger church and two of our team members got to speak. Then we put on a BBQ for the team members who sponsor a child there. They got to eat and spend time with their sponsor child and his/her family!
July 17 - left at 1 am to go to the airport and start our 30 hour adventure back home!
As you can see our trip was packed to the brim and I had so many amazing moments in this beautiful country. I met incredible individuals and got to see the joy the people possess even though their circumstances are rough. It was a once in a lifetime opportunity!
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