Monthly Archives: August 2011

Kenya Journal – Lessons Learned #1

I’ve been home 5 days.

It’s been hard readjusting to normal routines – a lot harder than I thought it would be. I’m tired all the time, I don’t feel well (like a bad cold or something), and pretty much all I can think about is Kenya.

Saturday evening was nice – it felt so comforting to be back with my betrothed (as I like to call him) – he took me to Chipotle and to get ice cream and just let me talk. I went through all my pictures and videos and told story after story after story. I kept apologizing for the word vomit I was doing, but he kept saying he wanted to hear more. Whether or not he was telling the truth, it really helped to just be able to talk nonstop about what I experienced, how I felt, what I was thinking, what I learned, and what my goals are. John is such a good listener – plus he’s been through similar experiences so he offered insight where needed, but mostly just offered an ear. He’s the most important person in my life now, so it meant so much to me to be able to share all of it with him.

Church on Sunday was good, but equally difficult. I don’t know why, but I just cried through the whole first half of worship. Every song made me cry more. Now, I did this in secret because frankly, I was embarrassed – I know I shouldn’t be, but I was. I kept picturing the kids and the people of Kiria singing and waving their arms and clapping in praise – and that just made me want to sing louder and praise harder. Their love of worship and their love of the Lord is so pure – and that just served as fuel.

Then, of course, Pastor Benji brought the word.

The message, titled “Soul Custody: Soul Sabbath”, focused on the fact that we are go go go all the time and we never take a moment to rest. Keeping the sabbath, a day of rest, holy is the longest of the commandments. Yet, so often, we forget and we don’t take time for ourselves.

This was something that became very apparent to me while in Kenya. It was hard for me to shut off “work” – and I don’t mean my job in America – but I mean that when we were working, it was difficult for me to leave work mode to play or relax. I was so focused. I think is really just an example, or a microcosm of a larger issue in my life where I just don’t know how to turn it off. I’m always go, go, go. Always have been. I’m always busy. And I don’t know how to say no and shut it off.

I’m not saying don’t work hard and slack off – what I’m saying is I don’t want to look back at my life in 5, 10, or 40 years and say – what did I do in my 20′s? Oh I worked. A lot. All the time. And that I was tired. A lot.

I want to say I spent time with those that matter – I had fun and enjoyed planning my wedding – and contributing and giving back.

Pastor Benji hit the nail on the head with this message – and it was so timely because this is exactly what John and I had talked about the day before – making sure we take time to shut work off and just be together. It’s so important.

The Kenyans know the meaning of work hard, play hard, rest hard. It’s no wonder they’re so joyful.

Pastor Benji shared this quote: “Sabbath is the need to rest and be available to God by being unavailable to the world.”

(I’m not sure who the quote is by (could even be pastor Benji)).

I’ve got a lot on my mind, and frankly, that’s okay. I’m okay with that. But Lord knows, as I prepare to go into the really busy season of my job, I’m gonna take time to rest and spend time with my future husband, my nephew, my family, and those that matter to me in my life.

All for now and much love.

Molly

Kenya Journal – The Transition to Reality

1 Reply

Let’s see… Where did I leave off? I’ve got a lot to catch you up on.

Well, it’s Saturday at 6:28pm Kenya time, 11:28am RDU time, 4:28pm London time and I’m on the last leg of our long journey home from Kenya.

The last few days have been tough, and I have no doubt that it will continue to be tough over the next few days / weeks / heck, even months.

We left the village and said our goodbyes on Wednesday and begun to prepare ourselves for the transition back to reality. So, the Thursday and Friday part of our trip was leisure and touristy type stuff to help ease that process. It was not easy.

We got up Thursday morning and headed to Lake Naivasha National Park which was right next to where we were staying. We got on a boat and went around Lake Naivasha looking at all the birds and amazing wildlife. We saw Kingfisher birds, pelicans (HUGE pelicans), storks, and so many Bald Eagles. They don’t call them Bald Eagles… I can’t remember right now what they call them… But they’re amazing. We even got to see HIPPOS! They’re so huge and adorable. We then docked the boat and walked around the national park which was amazing. Since there are no carnivores that live in the park (I.e. Lions) you can just walk around. We got so close to zebras, wildebeests, and giraffes. It was really cool.

Muchai even decided to pose with a victim. Gross. Yes, it was as gross as it looks.

I took a ton of pictures and it really was such a unique experience, but I couldn’t get my mind off the village. I felt guilty the whole time, like I shouldn’t be having fun. Please don’t get me wrong, it was amazing and I was so grateful to have the opportunity, I’m just being real.

We finished at Lake Naivasha and hit the road to Nakuru to check in at the hotel where we would be staying our last night in Africa and then do our safari. The drive was about an hour and a half across the beautiful Kenyan countryside. We passed this lake (of which I cant for the life of me remember the name right now) but it’s a lake that is a salt lake. Certain times of the year the lake water level gets really low and salt forms around the edges and people come for miles and miles to collect the salt. Crazy.

I used that bus ride to think about a lot – including all I’d experienced this week and how I am going to handle it – what I want to do with it – what I’m going to share, etc. It’s a lot to digest.

We got to Nakuru National Park (our hotel, which was more like a resort) was inside the park! How cool is that? As Muchai was checking us in, there were monkeys everywhere. If you know me, you know I love monkeys. They were seriously everywhere climbing on cars etc.

We then went into the park which is enclosed (to keep the lions in) – right away we saw giraffe, zebras, buffalo, antelope, and gazelle.

About 8km in was our resort – Savona Lion Hill Game Lodge – this was seriously one of the nicest places I’ve ever stayed – but immediately I felt out of place. I was surrounded by tourists and for some reason I almost resented them. I didn’t want to be around these people who were just spending ridiculous amounts of money to take pictures of birds and stuff. They were totally ignorant to the things that surrounded them in the countryside of Kenya. They had no idea the beautiful people of Kiria even existed. And again, I felt so guilty for being in this nice place “relaxing.” I have always wanted to come to Africa and go on a safari (basically exactly what these tourists were doing) yet I just wanted to be back in the village with the people of Kiria. It was really difficult. There was just so much going through my head – it was tough to digest.

We loaded the bus after checking in to go on safari in the national park. Lake Nakuru is breathtaking. We saw rhino, and more zebras, giraffe, etc. The lake had literally THOUSANDS of flamingos and pelicans. And baboons! So many baboons! We went up to this place on the mountain called Baboon Point and we got out of the bus and there were baboons everywhere. And so many baby ones! So cute!!! I took a bazillion pictures of them. And the view was incredible looking out over the park and the lake.

We finished up safari, sadly never seeing the lions. Muchai said they were probably hiding waiting to feed. But that’s okay, it was still an incredible experience. The good part about the safari was that we were able to just look at the wildlife and landscape, take pictures, and be in our own heads. You could tell everyone was dealing with that transition struggle.

We got back to the resort and had dinner which was, again, incredible. I’m eating this amazing meal and again, having this feeling of guilt. I kept thinking – I don’t deserve this. The people of Kiria have never had the opportunity to experience something like this in their own country, what makes me deserving of it?

At debrief that night I talked a lot about my struggle that day and felt comforted to know that I, too, wasn’t alone. Not everyone was feeling the exact same thing, but we were all dealing with it in our own way.

And a big part of me wanted to know why? Why did we get the opportunity to do these things? And although this isn’t the exact answer, it’s a paraphrase of the reasoning behind it: missionaries need vacation too. Muchai said that much of the culture and lifestyle of many of the people in Africa is centered around the landscape and wildlife (food, shelter, water, etc). He said one can’t fully grasp or understand the people without understanding and experiencing the wildlife too. Which made sense to me.

The other part of it (and most likely the largest part / reasoning) is that the leisure activities help to ease the transition back to reality. Many of my team members who are experienced missionaries talked about how when they went on mission trips and didn’t have that transition / leisure time, well, that the resentment I felt towards the tourists – they felt that towards their friends and family when they got home. They said that having this time is really important and allowed them to begin to shift their mindsets back to the real world. It’s not that it’s intentional to feel that resentment, it’s just natural and it happens. It was really good for me (and I know my team, too) to have that very candid talk Thursday night about our fears, uneasiness, concerns, etc. It made me feel a whole lot more relaxed and like I wasn’t a total nut job.

It also made me appreciate my experience in Africa as a whole a lot more. One thing that the Kirians showed me is how appreciative they are. It’s one of the many things I’ve taken away from this mission – love and sincere appreciation for those around you, what you’re given, and what you have. No matter what.

Friday was also a leisurely day of souvenir shopping along the way during our 3+ hour drive back to Nairobi.

We got to the airport at 9pm or so that night and had to say goodbye to Patrick our bus driver and Muchai. Saying goodbye to Muchai was so hard – he’s a part of our team. He was with us through everything this week – he knows our fears, dreams, hopes for the village, he’s laughed and cried with us, prayed with us, shared communion with us. That was really hard – but he’s made a promise that when Newhope is in Kenya, Muchai will be with us.

And that brings me to now. I’m exhausted, I feel like I’m getting sick, I’ve had like 2 hours of sleep, and I just want to be home and see my dog and my fiancé.

Over the next few days and weeks I’ll post more pictures, share more stories, and probably want to continue to use my blog as a place to “talk” out my thoughts.

I just want to say I can’t even begin to thank you to those of you who have been so supportive, who’ve followed this blog, offered prayer, and just been all around awesome. Thank you. From the bottom of my heart, thank you.

Asante sana.

All for now and much love,
Molly

Kenya Journal – Saying Goodbye

2 Replies

Today was our last day in the Kiria community. It’s 11:44pm Kenya time and I’m just now lying down with the hopes of decompressing and digesting all that’s happened. I’m so emotionally drained but spiritually filled – it’s quite the dichotomy I have going on. Is that the word I’m looking for? Dichotomy? Who knows.

I wasn’t sure what to expect today, but I’m going to do the best I can to digest it all and unpack it. Only so much can be unpacked with words on a blog.

Here’s what I’m going to do (this is all stream of consciousness and I’m figuring this out as I go, so bear with me) I’m going to lay out the logistics of the day today and then delve in more deeply to the things that I saw, felt, experienced.

6:30am: woke up. Hit snooze.

6:40am: hit snooze again.

6:49am: hit snooze a third time.

7:08am: done hitting snooze. Got out of bed. Got ready for day.

7:32am: breakfast

7:57am: Muchai (our Kenyan team leader) makes me laugh because he was trying a s’more flavored pop tart that Katy brought and he called it a sweet cake

8:00am: devotion with the team led by Brit (who did an awesome job)

8:36am: loaded bus to Kiria

9:17am: stopped at a duka (shop) in town on way to Kiria to buy bowls and pitchers for the manicures we’d be doing on the women that afternoon

9:18am: kids outside of the bus in the town are scared of me – I ask their name – kid says his name is Jackie Chan. I think he’s lying.

10:02am: arrive in Kiria. We are welcomed by the kids singing and the adult women singing

10:06am: we get to work. The men are working on breaking up rocks in the floor of the school – the women went out back to take the dirt that we dumped out from the floor of the school and use it to spread it around and fill in the many, many holes in the field where the kids play.

10:08am: I start shoveling dirt other team members carry dirt

10:16am: my back hurts – I’m still shoveling

11:29am: still shoveling

11:59am: still shoveling and my back really hurts

12:00pm: we are called away to lunch – we load the bus

12:15pm: we head up the Aberdare Mountains (behind the village) and into the Aberdare National Park – this park is famous because Queen Elizabeth found out she was going to become queen in this park and this is also the park where Prince William proposed to Kate last fall.

12:17pm: we arrive at this really flipping sweet treehouse type thing on the side of the mountain – we climb up it and have lunch overlooking the valley and Kiria. Amazing view.

1:30pm: head back to Kiria

1:49pm: begin doing manicures on the women. This was such an honor to wash their hands and see the smiles on their faces and they got crazy colors on their fingernails. It may sounds strange but it was a very intimate and important time for us and them.

3:30pm: the farewell ceremony begins. Lots of crying. Lots and lots of crying. More singing and dancing. The community gave us each gifts as a respect and thank you.

4:30pm: end of ceremony. Lots of Hugs, tears, laughter, etc. Big surprise for me which I’ll talk abut later.

4:47pm: load bus back to Lake Naivasha

5:54pm: stop at the Supa Duka called Naivas (it’s like their wal-mart) I got some hilarious greeting cards and some gifts for friends and family.

6:35pm: Muchai tells a guy on the street selling machetes and warrior swords and stuff that “They are Christians, they don’t need weapons.” as a way to get him to leave us alone

6:37pm: head back to Panorama hotel

7:30pm: dinner

7:59pm: we get a surprise visit from real Maasai warriors who do a traditional dance for us!

8:40pm: Maasai warrior photo op and hilarious moment which I will save for a separate post.

8:50pm: debrief with team. More crying.

11:00pm: we take communion as a team.

That brings me to now.

I’ll probably spend more time decompressing later because to be quite honest, I don’t have enough emotional energy in me to do it all now. Plus, I don’t think it’d be possible, really.

But I do want to tell you about a few significant things that happened to me today.

So, do you remember Rechel? The woman who approached me yesterday because she said she liked me and wanted to give me a gift? Well, she came to the farewell ceremony and brought her children. I forgot to mention yesterday that Rechel’s husband died a few years ago and so she is a young, single mother raising 8 kids in the village. She wanted to introduce her kids to me and take a picture together. That meant so much to me. As she hugged me goodbye, she looked at me with tears welling up in her eyes and said, “God bless people like you. You will come again and we will all praise God for bringing you back home to see us again. I love you.”

Yeah, that was tough.

Then there came the moment that will be with me forever.

So, there is an organization called BrightPoint for Children (brightpointforchildren.org). They are a partner of The 410 Bridge (the organization Newhope partners with to sponsor Kiria) that does child sponsorship. They list kids in their communities that are in need, a sponsor sponsors that child, and the money goes directly to the child’s school and programs in that school. ($39 a month and $32-$33 of that goes directly to them.) Many of the people on my team have sponsored kids in Kiria through BrightPoint and have said it’s amazing what they’ve seen done with the money. They’ve been able to hire and pay four teachers for the school, get chalk for the chalkboards, books, and testing supplies. Their next goal is to use the money to provide lunch for every kid since for many kids, that could be their only meal that day. Etc. Etc. Okay, that’s the background.

So, there was this little girl named Anacstacia in the village who was available for sponsorship. I met her and just felt this instant love for this sweet, beautiful, shy, 6 year old. So, I decided to sponsor her. I did it because I feel a personal connection to this community and see the potential and I don’t want my 5 days in the community to be only that – I want to continue to support and provide and serve them.

Well, this morning when we were working with the women, I got to meet Anacstacia’s mom. Hr name is Mary. She has 11 children and I’m fairly certain her husband (Anacstacia’s father) is not around. It was so great to meet her and serve her and tell her I was sponsoring her daughter. She was so grateful. However, I didn’t see Anacstacia. I asked Mary where she was and Mary said she was at home working and wouldn’t be coming to the school today. I said oh no! She won’t be here for the farewell ceremony? Mary said no, she was home working and their home is on the other side of the village. Let me just say, that the other side of the village is not a short walk from the primary school. Well, I was really sad that I wasn’t going to get to say goodbye to Anacstacia, but I told Mary to hug her for me, say goodbye, and tell her I can’t wait to get letters from her and send letters to her.

Well, we had the farewell ceremony and I was hugging kids, taking pictures, and saying goodbye to Rechel and the man and women. I turned around to head towards the bus and there, running across the field, is Mary with Anacstacia. Mary had walked all the way home to get Anacstacia to bring her all the way back to say goodbye to me. I immediately got the biggest smile on my face and ran towards them and just lost it. Anacstacia was smiling so big and so was Mary. I balled. Jordan (from my team) was awesome enough to take some pictures for us.

That moment will stay with me forever. The fact that Mary would walk all that ways just to bring her daughter to say goodbye meant so much to me. There are no words to describe how that made me feel.
Anacstacia and her mother Mary:

Me with Mary and Anacstacia:

I cried the whole way back to the hotel.

There’s a whole WHOLE lot more, but that’s all I can muster up tonight. I promise I’ll fill you in on the rest later.

Also, I want to compile all the hilarious stories into one separate post. So, you have that to look forward to, too.

Kiria, Kenya: you have my heart.

All for now and much love,
Molly

Kenya Journal – I’m Fine, Yes.

1 Reply

(The title of this post is for James – the 16 year old member of our team – totally an inside joke and I apologize).

I can’t believe today was our fourth day in the village and our sixth day away from home. Time is flying by and that makes me sad.

After breakfast and devotion we loaded the bus to Kiria. The drive from Lake Naivasha to Kiria is about an hour and fifteen to an hour and a half – 90% of the drive is on horribly bumpy roads. But one of the nice things about the drive is that we get to see a lot of the diverse scenery of Kenya. From the landscape, to the people, to the towns, to the wildlife…

Well, when we we turned on one of the main roads we use to get to Kiria… We saw ZEBRAS!!!! A whole pack of Zebras crossing the road! Our driver, Patrick, was so awesome to stop the bus and let us get out to take pictures. I took pics on my real camera and not my phone so you won’t be able to see them till later… But they were so awesome! I got so excited.

Back on topic – we got to the village, and some of the kids greeted us with a song! It’s so freaking cute!! Click here for the video of the song.

Update on my eye: woke up this morning and it was all dry – but my vision is back to 100% clear! After putting some saline solution in it, it was good the rest of the day – just achy. But if anything blows in it it hurts really bad – dust, dirt, and oh golly campfire smoke. Burns! But still, I’m so thankful that it’s all good now.

Well today was day two of working on the school. We got a lot done yesterday, but still had a lot to do. We spent the morning hauling more rocks, breaking more rocks, and we even had another classroom where we were making plaster and plastering the walls. That was a lot of fun, but very messy!

This is Grace. She was next to me in line today when we were hauling rocks – she was so kind and had such a great sense of humor. She was teaching me how to count in Kukuyu (the local language) and she would smile when I would try to make a joke.

I ran into the women who helped me yesterday with my eye and had to take a photo with them:

After many, many hours of hauling, we finished putting rocks on the floors of both classrooms! Here’s the proof of our hard work:

We had lunch and after lunch the men and women of our team split up to work with the teenage boys and girls. This was to be an opportunity for us to guide and counsel and serve as a sounding board for any questions they might have – about anything. To be honest, it didn’t go as we had hoped – we didn’t have a translator and so many of the girls couldn’t understand us as well as they probably could have and I think it was just a tough and intimidating environment for them and they were embarrassed to talk in front of their friends. We were able to talk to them a lot about the importance of education and working hard. All of them talked about wanting to grow up to be doctors and nurses and judges and lawyers – and all of them want to go to university. The sad truth is, many if not most of them won’t. The opportunity, the access, the cost, etc provides huge obstacles for these girls. But it was good to spend that time encouraging them to work hard and finish school before even thinking about getting married or having children.

Then, we had a surprise for the girls – we brought nail polish! So each of us sat down for some quality one-on-one (or sometimes one-on-six) time with them. The smiles on their faces as they got to pick out their nail polish color was priceless. To them, nail polish is only for the women in the movies or in magazines or newspapers – not for them. It was truly an honor to be able to serve them like that. Plus, it was fun to put glitter all over their nails and draw flowers. One girl even wanted to paint my nails but only ended up painting my thumb. Well, I’m rocking it till it chips off. Hilarious.

Here are some photos from the afternoon:

Then, of course the day got away from us and it was time to leave.

I do also want to share a story of something that happened to me today. A woman was asking for me outside of one of the classrooms where we were eating lunch and so I went out to meet her. She said in somewhat broken English, “Hello, Molly. It’s good to see you – I want you to know that I like you and when you come back to Kenya next year, I will have a gift for you. You do so much for us here in Kiria. I also want to take a photo with you. Will you bring me a copy next year? You have a beautiful smile and you work very hard. I don’t know why, but I like you.”

Her name is Rechel. It was one of the most genuine and heartfelt things I’ve ever heard someone say to me – and it seriously meant the world.

Here’s that photo I promised to bring Rechel next year:

That continues to be one of the things I admire most about the Kenyans. Their love is pure and honest and they are some of the most generous, selfless, and community minded people. It’s amazing to learn from.

Tomorrow is our last day in the community and I’m really dreading it. I don’t want to leave – I feel like our five days with them has been so short. But the truth is, these people are special and they don’t forget anything. We will be back and we will continue to foster and build these incredible relationships and learn and grow from each other in life and in Christ.

I’m exhausted and sore so I should probably try to sleep now.

All for now and much love,
Molly