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

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

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

(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

Today was a long and very tiring day, but definitely eventful and so fulfilling and FUN! It was our first day officially working in the village helping the Kirians with their projects.

So, after breakfast and devotion we headed to Kiria.

We got to the village and we were instructed with what we would be doing. To give some background, the Kiria primary school hasn’t been around that long. The Kenyan government comes into many of these villages and builds the schools. However, they don’t complete what they start. They basically put up walls and that’s it. No roofs, no flooring, no chalkboards – nothing. They say that it’s either because the government workers who come to build the school either steal the money that’s supposed to be used for the school or the government just doesn’t provide enough. Either way, it’s no good.

Well, since the floors are all mud, they’ve been gradually working on “cementing” them. We are working on two classrooms this week. It’s definitely a process. First step is to dig out the dirt floor. So we spent the first couple hours with pick axes and shovels digging away at the dirt. Let me tell you: this was tiring.

Here’s a shot of Fran and me picking away at the floor:

A lot of villagers came out today to help. It was amazing seeing how strong and incredibly hardworking these men and women were. They were largely my motivation. So many times I wanted to stop and take a break because my hands hurt, my arms were exhausted, and my back was screaming at me – not to mention the mouth full of dirt I kept getting. But then I would stop for a second and see women and men three and four times my age with no gloves, flip flops or sandals, and in dresses working up a sweat and I thought Hey, if they can keep going, so can I. It was so inspiring to watch.

I was breaking a sweat big time. A few of the adults were talking and pointed to me and said – you – your Kenyan name is Nyawira (everyone gets a Kenyan name before they leave – but they have to give it to you – you aren’t to ask for it). I asked what Nyawira meant – and they said “Lady who works very hard.” I felt so honored for them to give me that name – so that made me want to work even harder. Honestly, I had such a blast working with them.

After you break up all the dirt, then you have to get it out of there. So with shovels, we filled wheelbarrows and potato sacks with the dirt and hauled it out of the room. We even just shoveled out the window of the classroom. I had an epic fail with this one because I thought one of the windows was broken when it wasn’t and I basically tossed a huge shovel full of dirt t a window and it flew back at my face – we had a good laugh.

After we finished shoveling the dirt, we were told we then had to pat down the remaining ground to prep it for the rocks. Well, what better way to do that then to get everyone in there jumping and dancing. All of a sudden a huge dance party broke out and all the women sung and danced. It was so much fun! Then women also said they were blessing the ground for the the children to learn on. (Here’s a link to the video of the dance party)

Here’s a shot of me in the middle of the dance party.

After the dance party, it was time to take all the rocks that were in a huge pile outside of the school and lay them on the floor to later be broken up. So, all of us, Kenyans and Newhope team members together formed three human assembly lines from the pile of rocks into the first classroom then lay the rocks down. Now, these are not small rocks. They’re HUGE rocks and boulders. Not light, either. One thing I noticed and loved about the Kirians is no matter how long we had been working, no matter how tired they were, they just kept smiling and laughing. They take such joy and pride in even the most difficult of work – I really wish to emulate that attitude.

Then, there was the slight injury.

As we passed the rocks along, some of the rocks were too heavy to pass, so one of the men would take a sledgehammer and hit the boulders to break it up into smaller pieces to make it easier to pass. Well, as I stood there watching him hit the boulder, I kept seeing smaller pieces flying off and I thought to myself, Man, I hope those don’t hurt anyone. Right as I thought that – BAM! A dime sized shard of rock came rocketing (no pun intended) towards my eye and went straight and hit my eyeball. I immediately hunched over and held my eye – whoaly moly that hurt so bad. Immediately three of the Kirian women and Cathy (a woman from my team who happens t be a nurse) came running over to me. The women pried my eye open and took a blade of grass and went in to basically dig and scrap the pieces of rock and dirt out. I cried – either because it scared me so much or because they were making my eye tear – either way I was embarrassed. The women genuinely wanted to make sure I was okay – and the fact they cared that much meant a lot.

Cathy took me over behind the school and laid me down in the grass to flush the eye out and then she put gauze over it to protect it the rest of the day. Needless to say, many MANY pirate jokes ensued (I’m looking at you, Diana ). But all I kept thinking as Cathy was patching me up, was I need to get back to work! There’s so much left to do!

After she was done, I hopped up and got back in the assembly line to haul more rocks. The women said I was living up to my name, Nyawira. I thought no way, but I hope to one day.

We finished the one room of rocks and we will go in tomorrow to break them up and prep the concrete. I have already said that anyone going near the rock breaking needs to wear eye protection.

After a long morning and early afternoon of hard work, we had lunch. Over lunch, Christopher, or “Creeestofer” as he pronounces it, told us the story of “the lion”. Christopher is from a neighboring village and comes to help and hang out with us a lot. He did the same with the group last year and this lion story was famous – so I was excited to hear it. I cant begin to describe it so I will share a link to the video of him telling the story here. Wait till the end, that’s what’s really worth it.

Brilliant.

After lunch we went for another round of home visits. We brought provisions with us to make chapati and chai tea. We went to the home of an elderly widowed woman. I would include her name if I knew remotely how to spell it.

This is some of the hosts preparing the cooking station in their kitchen:

I volunteered to make the dough. It’s basically just water, salt, egg, and lots and lots of flour. It was so thick so the dough kept sticking to my hands.

(Please excuse the eye patch in this photo of me stirring the dough):

The finished product:

James, Ros, Delice and I took turns rolling out the dough and putting it on the skillet. Once it was done, we went in the house to enjoy our masterpiece and drink some delicious chai tea.

This is my group with our home visit host:

It was such a blessing to spend time making such a special meal with them. And they were so appreciative. Chapati is usually only made on special occasions – so they were thankful to us for bringing them the provisions.

After some more time just chatting, we loaded the bus and headed back to Lake Naivasha where we are staying.

It’s been a long day and I know my body is going to probably hate me in the morning. But hey, that’s what we are here for and it’s totally worth it.

Heading to sleep now – long day ahead tomorrow.

Oh, and my eye is doing better. I took the patch off to let it air out. Vision is still blurry and my eye itches and burns like crazy – but it’s definitely improving. I know that it will be good as new in the morning.

If you are the praying type – please pray for the general health and safety of my team. Some of us haven’t been feeling so well, so I just ask that you keep them in your thoughts.

Love and miss you all back home.

All for now and much love,
Captain Molly Nyawira

My roomie, Brit outside of our hut.

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It’s 9:25pm Kenya time (2:25pm RDU time) – we just finished our nightly debrief and I’m sitting by the bonfire decompressing from the day. The weather here is awesome – it’s like 65 degrees and there’s a slight breeze – such a nice change from the 100+ degree weather back home.

This is me this morning outside of our hut with our view in the background. This is not too bad to wake up to every day:

Today was, in a word, amazing.

During breakfast this morning, there was a TV on in the corner with a church service on. It cracked me up because it was basically an African Newhope church! I pointed out the comparisons to the team and we all had a great laugh. The stage looked the same, there was an African Pastor Fuller leading worship and dancing around, an African Celebration Choir on each side of the stage in beautiful matching dresses and suits, and even an African Jon on drums behind the little plexiglas case. Then African Pastor Benji came out and brought the word. It was awesome – I don’t know where that church is in Africa, but I want to go.

After breakfast and devotion we loaded the bus and headed to the village of Kiria for church.

I should comment that as we drive to the village, we always pass a TON of kids alongside the road that run alongside the bus waving yelling, “Hello Mzungus! Mzungus!!” Mzungus means white people, and needless to say, we are rare, so they get excited to see us drive by.

We got to the village and we were split up into our five groups again just like we were for home visits. My group, Dave, Sarah, and me went to the AIC Church which was the church of Nafthiri (gramps!), Mary, Lucy, Sampson, and Margaret.

When we got to the church Nafthiri (gramps!) was waiting there for us. Here’s a picture of us outside of the church:

There were a lot of kids at this church – close to 30. One of the first girls I met was named Lydia. When I said hi to her and asked her name, Sampson said she is deaf and mute so she can’t understand me. I used to teach a deaf student when I taught high school, so I know some sign language – not a lot, but some basics. So I signed to Lydia, “Hi Lydia, my name is Molly, nice to meet you.” As soon as I did that her face lit up and she smiled at me and signed back, “Thank you.” It was awesome.

The whole congregation welcomed us in with open arms. It’s amazing to see them all dressed up and decked out. Many, if not all, of them only wear these clothes on Sundays. Many of the kids have only one pair of pants and one pair of shoes or one dress and they only wear it on Sundays. The elders in the church all wear fancy dresses and suits to show leadership, but they have had these suits or dresses their entire adult lives. But you can tell how proud they are of what they have.

The women playing drums for worship:

There was SO much singing, dancing, and worship. The service was 3 hours long and almost 2 hours alone was worship. The children sang and danced – they sang together, and then the older kids, then the boys, then the girls, then the adult women, then 2 girls did a solo, and so on. Everyone was so incredibly engaged and passionate about the worship – it was so fun to watch. They even sang “Blessed Be Your Name” in English and “Jesus Paid it All” in Swahili. Oh, and the kids sang this song that went like this:

Jesus love is very very wonderful
Jesus love is very very wonderful
Jesus love is very very wonderful
Sooooo wonderful love.

Adorable. Don’t worry, I have video I will post later.

The kids just flocked to us (picture below – Lydia is the one in the Obama hat).

The whole service they played with my hair, looked at my bible, and they kept petting my arm and pulling on my arm hair. They’re fascinated by it – haha!

After singing, we were all introduced as guest and Dave from our team did the preaching. Not only was it his first time preaching in that church, but also his first time preaching ever. He was great and the congregation was really inspired and grateful. It is so awesome to spend time with these people who worship in a completely different way and who are so different from us, yet we all worship and love the same God. That’s so refreshing and comforting.

During the service, this one girl who I noticed in the choir, sat on my lap. Her name is Njeri (jeh-re-ee – roll the r). This girl has completely stolen my heart. I don’t know what it is about her, but we just clicked. She doesn’t speak much and she’s probably no older than 3, but she’s so beautiful.

Njeri is the girl on the left on my lap:

After church let out, the women made Dave, Sarah, and me lunch and served us in the side room. I felt so blessed and so honored that these women went out of their way to cook US, the visitors who are there to serve them, lunch. We had potatoes with peas and carrots and a shredded cabbage salad. The potatoes were amaaaaaaazing. The salad made me nervous because it hadn’t been cooked and they even said it had been washed and was “Very fresh!” We have to be very careful that we don’t eat anything that’s been possibly contaminated by the water – we even brush our teeth and wash our faces with bottled water. I tried to avoid eating the cabbage but they insisted so I had a few bites and just prayed that God would understand and bless the food so that I don’t get sick from it. It’s nighttime now and let’s just say, I don’t feel too too hot, but I’m hanging in there, it could be worse, and I’m hoping that whatever this little “thang” is, is temporary and gone in the AM. But to be honest, it was worth it. Their gratefulness on their faces for serving us was so important to me. Oh, and they made us Chai tea. So. Good. Seriously.

After church and lunch, we went to our actual lunch and walked down the side of this mountain through a cow pasture (and cow pies the size of me) to sit and have lunch. The view was beautiful and it was a good chance for us as a team to decompress for a bit and check out the scenery.

Then came the fun.

We went to the schoolyard with the soccer balls and face paint, and bubbles and got to play with the kids. These kids have so much energy and super lungs. I should point put that we are at like a bazillion feet above sea level (I don’t know the actual # – but I do know that it is HIGH) – so you get out of breath going to the bathroom. Everything wipes you out. But man, these kids can run forever.

We played the bug game where basically you just put your fingers to your head like antennae and go buzz and chase them and the kids laugh and scream and run from you. It’s hilarious. We painted faces which was a blast – Wes and James can’t draw (their words, not mine) so they just kept writing words like “Jambo” or putting check marks on faces. It was so funny.

Here’s Wes painting the face of Delicia (I know I’m not spelling her name right):

As I played with them, I just had so much fun watching these kids just laugh and run and not have a care in the world. This is their zone – their happy place.

I did, however, wonder where my girl Njeri was. Then I saw who I thought was her sister so I asked her where Njeri was… She pointed and said “Over there!” I turned and there she was standing alone looking around – so I yelled her name and she turned around. The minute she saw me, her face lit up and her little legs ran towards me as fast as she could and she grabbed on to my leg and hugged me. It was the best feeling ever. So I picked her up and carried her on my shoulders. I painted her face and taught her the bug game. Njeri, Delicia, Lydia, and Purity were the girls that just sort of clung to me and it was so great getting to spend time with them and see them laugh.

Me with the girls (they loved being able to see themselves in the iPhone camera):

These kids are just so honest and pure.

(Here’s a link to a video I was able to upload to facebook with some of the kids)

Then we had to leave and head back to the Panorama. I was able to get this photo of Njeri (in the red sweater) and Delicia (behind her) before I left and I told them I’d be back tomorrow and that we will play more:

As the bus pulled away, the kids ran behind it chasing after us waving goodbye and there was my little Njeri running with the big kids. So precious and totally gut wrenching. That girl has my heart for reals.

Later after dinner, we gathered around the fire for debrief which I led and we all shared our experiences from the day. It is becoming more and more evident to me that God has brought each of us here for a particular reason and each reason is different – yet equally important. I can’t wait to see what tomorrow and the rest of the week brings – we just getting started.

There were three native Kenyans sitting around the fire just listening to us share and talk about our day, and before I closed us in prayer, they each apologized for eaves dropping but said a very heartfelt thank you to us for being there. They said growing up in Kenya, they know firsthand how important making a small difference in the life of a child is and they thank God for people like us. It meant so much for us to hear that – but the fact is, Kenya is making an impact on us. Honestly.

Well, tomorrow is our first day of work work in the village. I’m getting my muscles ready because we are going to be breaking up a WHOLE lot of very large rocks to use for flooring in the school. I’m ready!

It’s getting late here so I’m going to head to bed soon – partially with hopes that I don’t have any more of these weird falling sensation spells as I fall asleep. That seems to be a side effect of the malarone. Not scary, just weird, and then I have to try to fall back asleep.

Anyway. Again, another long post, just in the hopes of never forgetting a single detail.

All for now and much love,
Molly

I took the picture in the village we stopped in to buy our gumboots. The kids loved making faces.

++++

It’s 6:25pm Kenya time on Saturday and we just checked in to the Panorama Hotel where we are staying for the remainder of our time here in Kenya. The hut where we are staying is small. Very small. But we have mosquito nets for our beds and an actual toilet. You have absolutely no idea how valuable an actual toilet is right now. More on that later. Dinner is at 7, so I thought now might be a good time to dump my brain of everything in it from today.

So today: woke up (late – silly alarms), had breakfast, devotion with the team, and then loaded the bus and we hit the road to Kiria. The city of Nairobi is huge – I would ask what city we were in like every 20 min or so I felt like and they’d still say Nairobi. The people are beautiful, but the city is dirty. There’s trash everywhere and since they don’t have landfills, they burn everything… And so the air smells like smoke.

We passed by Kibera, which is the largest slum in Kenya (and I believe it is also the largest slum in Africa, but I won’t swear to that). There are 3 million people living there. 3 million. And let’s just say, it’s not a large area. I know there’s an organization at UNC called Carolina for Kibera that raises awareness and money for the community.

Once we got off the highway about 45 minutes into the drive, it was a lot of dirt roads. And bumpy ones. Oh my. Really bumpy. But the landscape here is beautiful. Mountainous and lots of flora (yeah, I just used the word flora).

We passed through a few different villages and then stopped to use the restroom at a little market and Great Rift Valley overlook. It’s 8,000 feet above the valley and unbelievably beautiful. It was tough because we weren’t allowed to buy anything from the market, but the moment we got off the bus we were swarmed with sweet girls selling us their handmade goods.

Then it was time to use the “bathrooms”.

Okay, now I was a girl scout, I enjoy the outdoors, bugs (outside my home) don’t really bother me, etc. But I don’t think I was properly prepared for the pit latrines. They’re little wooden shacks covering a hole in the ground. That’s it. Nothing to hold on to, no TP, and about an inch of muck, whoknowswhat, and a whole lot of flies and mosquitos. It was definitely a team building experience between Brit, Amy, and myself.

We left and headed further north to Kiria. We stopped one more time in a little town about 20 minutes away and bought gum boots. This was our first real interaction with the kids and the people. The kids are so amazing. So happy and they wave and smile. Many without shoes on just run around playing without a care in the world. All they want you to do is take pictures of them and show them. Many of them would point and ask which one they were because they’d never seen themselves. Then they’d laugh and laugh at their photo and run away.

Got the gum boots, and headed another 20 minutes or so to Kiria. The drive from Nairobi to Kiria took about 4 hours with two stops.

As we pulled up the final leg of the mountain, the image I saw will forever be with me. Waiting for us at the end of the road was about 100+ kids and their families from the Kiria primary school dancing and singing to us. They are the most joyful, grateful, and (you’ll hear me use this word a lot) beautiful people.

As we stepped off the bus, many of my teammates who came last year hugged kids and elders they remembered and all of a sudden I look down and there’s at least 6-7 kids like latched on to me – holding my hands, tugging my shirt, and saying “Jambo! What is your name?” Adorable. (On a side note my name is hard for them to pronounce so they all think my name is Mary and/or Maury – awesome – I love it).

We walked the group to the primary school and received our formal welcome from the elders and children. I was so emotional and overwhelmed looking at all of them that I just started to cry. I leaned over to a teammate who was on the trip last year and asked if it was too early to cry… She said no way. It’s never too early.

The kids left and we walked around the schoolyard for a bit before heading out for home visits. My group was me, Sarah, and Dave and we met up with Nithiri (NIH-tear-ee – I am probably spelling his name way wrong) and Sampson. Nithiri is 82 and has lived in Kiria his whole life. He liked Sarah and me so much that he dubbed us his grandchildren and in turn, we dubbed him gramps. Sampson is 30 and spoke English the best so he helped to translate and tell us what was going on. We toured Nithiri’s family farm and talked about the crops they grow, the animals they keep, and they asked questions about our home. Their best crop is potatoes, so I told him about French Fries.

We then went to visit the home of Lucy and Margaret and Lucy’s daughter Mary was there, too. Lucy is 67 and is in very poor health. It appears that she had a stroke (the signs were evident, but they didn’t say) and overall, she just wasn’t doing well. So Nithiri, Sampson, and one of the pastors that was there asked us to give Lucy some words of encouragement and pray for her.

It was one of the most powerful moments I’ve witnessed. Two completely different cultures bonding together over the love, prayer, and hope of this woman. Watching the tears fall from Mary’s eyes as we sat there fellowshipping broke me. It may sound cliche and trite, but this was definitely a defining moment for me. These people who have nothing more really than a small roof over their heads, clothes on their back, and the love of each other – yet, they couldn’t be happier.

They are truly inspiring. We should all be so grateful of everything that we are so blessed to have. Yet the most superficial day-to-day stuff can consume us and make us forget how lucky we really are.

Lucy, Margaret, and Mary – three amazing women who I will truly never forget.

We left home visits and headed to our hotel which is about an hour and fifteen to an hour and a half away. Oh, and we stopped again to go to the bathroom. The number of flies and Mosquitos is indescribable. I am going to be totally frank and honest when I say that the bathroom situation is going to be the biggest challenge for me. Working, serving the people, traveling, etc etc etc I can do. But getting used to squatting over a hole in the ground surrounded by bugs is going to be tough to get used to.

Well, that brings us to present time. Eating dinner, laughing, and sharing experiences from day with my amazing team. Oh! And I’m have a Coca-cola Light (like Diet Coke) in a glass bottle! They have them here for 100 shillings (equals like $.80 cents).

On a side note, I’d just like to say that I’m honored to be a part of this team. There are some really amazing people with huge hearts here and it’s a pleasure to serve alongside them. I hope that I can learn from those who came last year, I hope that I can learn from those who didn’t and who have other gifts to share, and I hope I can learn a little more about myself along the way.

I’m not going to apologize for my long-windedness like I usually do. I want to make sure I don’t forget anything.

And if you made it this far and you’re still reading this, I’ll buy you dinner.

Just kidding.

But seriously.

I will. If you honestly made it this far, the least I can do I feed you.

All for now and much love,

Molly / Mary / Maury

(finished writing at 7:37pm – my golly I write a lot)

Disclaimer: all of these journal entries are taking place via the wordpress app on my iPad. So, please excuse typos and weird spellings of stuff. Yada Yada Yada.

I also am necessarily able to have an actual Internet connection as I write, so many of these are not written in real time.

++++

Preparing for this trip has definitely been a difficult and educational experience. It’s also personally challenging. The fundraising is stressful, packing is tough, and the shots. Oh, the shots. If you know me, you know I am no fan of needles. Well, I think I had to get somewhere in the neighborhood of 8 shots. Then there’s the pills for typhoid fever and malaria. (I just started taking the malarial pills two days ago and I’ve been told the side effects are awful. So far the only side effects I’ve felt are dizziness and my stomach hurts a little bit. I’ve heard you’re supposed to get really vivid strange dreams. Well, I have vivid strange dreams anyway, so I don’t know if I see a difference there).

Through this whole process I have relied so heavily on the support of my family, friends, church family, teammates, my amazing boyfriend (who now happens to be my FIANCE!), and of course, God.

I’ve found myself praying a lot more lately. And doing it in a lot more honest way. What do I mean by honest? Well, praying is such a personal thing for people. That actual time that you spend one-on-one with God can be very intimidating for people. Am I saying the right things? Am I praying correctly? What should I pray for? Did I cover all of my prayer bases? I used to think I was a “terrible prayer” – until one day about 6 months ago, I started literally laughing out loud when I realized that’s what I thought. God doesn’t care how you pray, what you say, or what big words you use… God just wants to hear from you. YOU. The real you. Not the you that only uses churchy-jargon in prayer. It seems disingenuous. So I thought that if I really wanted to develop a relationship and use God in my life, that’d I’d have to start being Molly. So, I started praying like I would confide in a best friend or family member. Just honestly speaking about what I’m grateful for, what worries me, and what I hope for. So far it’s been really good and I’ve felt such a difference in how I deal with life.

Well, I say all of that to set up the fact that I’ve used all of that support and that prayer to prepare for today. The long long day that is today.

Our first flight left RDU at 6:15pm and it was 8 hours of being cramped, sitting next to a guy who smelled of a mixture of cheese and farts. He also kept watching crazy sci-fi movies on his PSP. And every little bit I’d glance over and some alien or something was getting their head sliced in half.

Needless to say, I didn’t sleep.

We got to London / Heathrow at 6:55am local time (so like 2am RDU time). We had to go through security again and I got patted down. That was awkward, for all parties involved.

But by that point we were all so sleepy and loopy, everything was funny. I had a good solid 5 min laugh over a comment about David Hasselhoff. Ah, good times.

Then, during our layover we desperately looked for plus to charge things that start with i. I found one behind a terminal counter that wasn’t being used. So I stood behind it and charged, and despite the fact that I was holding my pink pillow, charging a pink-cased iPad, and had awful plane head and bloodshot eyes, people still kept coming up to me at an empty terminal counter asking for directions and seat changes. After the 10the request or so, I started saying random things in my British accent. Funny for me, they looked at me strange and walked away.

On a side note: I’d like to say that Boingo wireless is a ripoff. I was going to splurge the $8 for the 30 days of wireless… Went through the whole process, and then boom, you need to download the Boingo app from the app store to connect. Well you can’t connect to the app store if you’re not connected to the internet. What a sham. I will be challenging that $8.

Anywho.

Finally we boarded our Kenya Airways flight at 10:00am London time (5am RDU time) and holy moly there are a lot of people on this flight. Like seriously. This plane is massive. The sheer mechanics / physics of a machine this large with this many people is able to fly so fast and be in the air is amazing to me. (Don’t let the present tense of that confuse you, because I’m typing from this flight currently, but this probably won’t be published until I am not on this flight. You know).

Anyway, this fight is cramped, I am in one of those middle section aisle seats where it is basically impossible to sleep without waking up with some incredibly horrid cramp in your leg, neck, etc. I think I’ve slept a total of an hour. I’m tired. Really tired. We are scheduled to land in Nairobi at 9:45pm local time (2:45pm RDU time).

Oh, I should mentioned that the curry chicken, black beans, and rice dinner on this flight was surprisingly delicious. The dry and tough “brownie” was not.

It’s times like this when you’ve been traveling for almost 24 hours, you’re tired, hungry, etc… That patience and perspective are so desperately needed. Here’s hoping I can keep both of those things in the forefront of my mind.

All for now and much love.

Molly

1am Kenya time addition: getting out of the airport took forever. We landed at 9:15 pm local time (2:15pm RDU) and it took upwards of 2-3 hours to go through customs and get our Visas. Brutal.

We met out 410 Bridge leader David Muchai who the Newhope group had last year. He is awesome. Got to our hotel “The Strand” and we were greeted with bottled water and delicious passion fruit drinks. Mmmmm. So good. The hotel is more like a hostel, but we will only be here for the night. We get up really early tomorrow to head 3 hours north to the community.

Okay, all for now for real this time.

Disclaimer: all of these journal entries are taking place via the wordpress app on my iPad. So, please excuse typos and weird spellings of stuff. Yada Yada Yada.

I also am necessarily able to have an actual Internet connection as I write, so many of these are not written in real time.

++++

So, I’m not usually the best at journaling.

When I was a kid, I used to pick up a pretty journal at a bookstore or something like that – I’d take it home and have this very solid week of writing in it daily, and then, like clockwork, I’d stop writing in it. No particular reason, I just couldn’t keep it up. Then I’d see a new journal, think it was pretty, and the cycle would start all over again.

Well, later in life, blogging came about, and that became an easier place for me to jot down my thoughts while also holding myself more accountable to keeping up with it. And just like the old days of journaling, I go through cycles.

Anyhow. Recapping my journaling history isn’t why I’m writing this.

I’m currently sitting on a plane on my way to my first mission trip. I’m going with a group of 16 amazing people from my church, newhope church in Durham, NC, to a small village called Kiria, in the mountainous region of Kenya.

This is something I’ve always wanted to do, but the opportunity just wasn’t ever there. Many time, the big objection (outside) to a trip like this is that people here in the US need our help too. And I completely agree. I love volunteering and helping out in my own community and in my own backyard. But the fact of the matter is, there are people, cultures, and communities outside of our own that need our help too and have a whole lot less resources than we do.

I feel that to be a truly educated person it is so important for us to experience those things outside of our comfort zone and outside of our personal life bubble of the first world.

(Now the journal that 410 Bridge (the organization we are coordinating with on this trip) gave us has some journaling questions that I’m going to use to fuel these entries).

So why am I going? I’m going because I want to serve. Truly. Jesus was the ultimate selfless servant and when you spend your days stressing over overloaded email inboxes, deadlines, bill paying, and the general life drama, it can make it very difficult to get out of that selfish mindset and serve others.

Lately I’ve really tried to be really conscious of how I spend my time. I tend to overwork myself, a lot. And I get caught up in my goings-on and suddenly I look back and I haven’t developed as many meaningful relationships as I would like, or I feel drained rather than fulfilled. So, I try to spend more time with those I love. I’ve made a more conscious effort to tell those whom I have lost touch with that I still love them and think about them often. I try to spend more time listening rather than talking. And I try to serve as much as I can. Getting involved with a small group and the Worship Arts Ministry at newhope has been one of the best decisions I have made in a long time. I feel so refreshed and reenergized after what can sometimes be a very long day of serving. And the friendships and relationships I’m developing are wonderful.

At the end of the day, I just want to help people other than myself, in any way possible.

Now, with any leap of faith comes apprehensions. Going to a third world country so far from home, there are so many unknowns. Will we be received well? Will we be welcomed? Will we develop relationships? Will we serve the people of Kiria in the way they deserve? What will conditions be like? And yeah, no joke, the bathroom situation. The notion of pit latrines isn’t something that exactly excites me. Etc… Etc… The fear of the unknown can be the worst.

So, I’m going to end my current rambling with a thought and a prayer.

I pray for safe travel. We’ve got a layover in London, another 8+ hour flight, and hours of driving ahead of us.
I pray for patience. With a large group, varying personalities, and unexpected challenges, you know that things can get stressful.
I pray for good health. Heck, I had to get so many shots and I’m taking so precautions, but the truth is, you never know what could come about. But needless to say, getting sick on a trip like this would not be fun.
I pray for my teammates. I pray they impact lives and that in turn, their lives are impacted. They’re amazing people and I have no doubt this will happen.
I pray that God breaks our hearts and we allow Him to work through us. Without Him, none of this is possible.

Okay, end of rambling for real this time. Thanks for indulging me.

I love you all.

All for now and much love.

-Molly

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