We arrived at the airport where we met our team. There were ten of us going on this adventure together. We flew from San Antonio to Dallas, then to London, then to Nairobi. The last two flights were so long, but thank goodness for the wide variety of movies offered. Luckily those flights would have been night time for us at home, so our internal clocks let us sleep the majority of the time. We arrived in Nairobi, where Hesbon (a Kenyan man who our church works closely with) picked us up and took us to the Presbyterian Safe House (not sure that was the exact name of it). We settled in for our first night in Kenya, knowing the next morning we would be packing our stuff back up to head to the village we would stay in for the rest of our trip. Tanner, our leader, reminded us to enjoy what would be our last hot shower until we returned back to the safe house ten days later. The next day before leaving we had a chance to tour around Nairobi and eat lunch in a little mall. I can't even explain Nairobi traffic. These people have no rules when it comes to driving. There are traffic lights and signs but nobody even acknowledges them. The city is very large and there were people everywhere you looked. Literally, everywhere! After a quick lunch and exchanging our money we headed for the airport where we boarded our flight to Eldoret.
We were greeted in Eldoret by two men named Jimmy and Joe. Jimmy was the bus driver and his nickname was "Jimmy Big Machine" . I quickly learned why he was called that. The roads, if they can even be called roads, were wet and thick with a sticky mud and had pot holes that could devour our entire bus. "Jimmy Big Machine" handled these roads like a master. Joe was a sweet man whom we, especially Wilson, became very attached to. So, after about an hour of these crazy roads in the dark with not much going on in the headlight department, we arrived at the place we would spend the next 10 days. The Noel Academy had a school, boarding house, orphanage, church, and a house for people who do mission work to come and stay. The house had a living room area and dining area down stairs and two large rooms (boys and girls room lined with bunk beds) upstairs. Those rooms also had two bathroom stalls and two shower stalls. Much to our surprise they had installed water heaters since the last time a group from our church visited. We were able to enjoy nice hot showers the entire time. There were several ladies employed there who did all the cooking, cleaning, and clothes washing. For breakfast every morning we had hard boiled eggs, sausage, and cereal. Lunch we ate rice and beans almost every day. And for dinner we had a variety of food including, rice, beans, chicken, potatoes, and these fabulous tortilla things called Chipate (not sure on spelling). Not much meat is served because it is so expensive, so on our last night the guys on our team purchased two goats to butcher and grill. My meat still had hair on it. Yuck!!!
Over the next 10 days we did different kinds of work. We spent three days traveling to surrounding villages to schools to do VBS. Wilson, William, and I along with another team member presented a skit about Daniel in the lions den. William played the lion and he only had one line which was to "ROAR" and he did an excellent job. The kids absolutely loved him. Most of the people we encountered had seen white adults because many missionaries come through there, but almost none of them had ever seen a white kid. Even the adults were infatuated with William. At every school the teachers would say they wanted to keep him. They call white people Mazungus (again not sure on spelling). The kids especially wanted to touch our skin and feel our hair. While doing VBS we were able to see what Kenyan schools are like. We went to some that we could tell were schools where the "rich" kids attend and some where the classrooms were just little tin make shift sheds. Either way these schools come nothing close to what kids in America get. School is not free there, so most children never get the chance to go. The children and teachers were so grateful for us being there and sharing God's word with them. I can still hear their laughter and singing in my head, what a beautiful sound. "Joyful day, Joyful day, it's a joyful day we are so happy"
We also did some construction projects for the academy. We were able to install gutters on the orphanage and boarding house which will provide clean water for those kids. We helped work on a septic system for the main house and we spent lots of time shoveling rock to fill pot holes that were holding water. These tasks became very frustrating due to lack of tools, lack of direction, and language barrier between us and the Kenyan men helping us. Now looking back it is kind of funny, but our team had to redo the projects several times because of "technical difficulties".
In our spare time we would play with the kids at the school or visit the orphanage and love on those sweet babies. The stories of these kids in the orphanage is absolutely heartbreaking. Some had parents who had died and some were abandoned. One had been left in a field as an infant. When we were at the orphanage the babies just wanted to be held close. The older kids loved to play in the field with the guys on our team and William. These children can play some soccer, William got schooled pretty good. These kids have no idea that they are lacking, no idea what kids like William have on the other side of the world. They know God and they depend on God for everything they need. What a sweet reminder that was to us of how we should live our lives, completely and utterly dependent on our Creator. William was able to witness that most kids there didn't have shoes or a winter jacket. Every kid had a snotty nose and a terrible cough. We ended up leaving most of our clothes, especially Williams for the kids in the orphanage. It was hard to say goodbye to those precious faces. We had become very attached to them as well as they were attached to us. Two boys in particular stole my heart. Alvin and Bryan. Alvin turned nine while we were there. He is so bright and so kind. He looked after those younger kids with such a loving heart. Bryan was three but still did not talk or really even behave like a three year old. He was very much still a baby. He had the sweetest laugh and the most precious dimples. He loved to be tickled and always wanted to be held. We will cherish our time with these kids forever and hopefully we will return soon enough to see them again.
On Sunday we were able to attend a church service, where we were asked to lead in a couple of songs and a couple of our youth gave a testimony. William sang "Holy, Holy, Holy" all by himself. I was one proud mommy with tears rolling down my cheeks. Tanner, our leader and youth pastor, gave an excellent sermon. We were told that church services there can sometimes last until evening. They worship as long as they feel the Holy Spirit is leading them. We were prepared with snacks and water in our backpacks, but this service only lasted about two hours. After, we stayed around for a long time just singing and dancing with people from the village. It really was an amazing experience. I absolutely love hearing the singing from the Kenyan people, especially the kids.
Something I loved about the people is that they were so laid back, never in a rush, and always willing to take time to talk with you. They were so kind to William and so understanding of his 5 year old ways. While doing construction projects William had the tendency to get in the way a bit. He wanted to help but at times there weren't enough tools for everybody. William wanted to have a tool too and would get upset when he didn't get one. We were so focused on getting the job done quickly and efficiently that there wasn't enough time for William to use a shovel for a while. Wilson, was getting on to William one day and a man came up and interrupted and told Wilson to just let him be a kid and searched until he found a shovel for William to use. Wilson and I learned a great lesson from this man. We get so busy marking off things on the to do list and getting as much done in a day as we can that we forget to take the time to show our kids how to do the things we are doing or to just sit and play with them.
After our time at Build the Village was over we packed up our trunks once again, said goodbye to our new friends and brothers and sisters in Christ, loaded the rickety bus with Jimmy at the wheel and headed to Eldoret to board our first of four flights that would bring us back home. Joe, who served as our translator and helped us with construction, took the trip with us to the airport. We, at this point had become very attached to Joe. An amazing man with the sweetest smile, a love for old country music, and an even bigger love for God. Wilson gave Joe pretty much all of his clothes including his boots so he could be a cowboy. Since we have returned Wilson and Joe have communicated via Facebook several times. He says that he has a picture of William that he looks at all the time. As I sit here typing my eyes well up with tears thinking of the time we spent in that village, the people we met, things we witnessed, and lessons we learned. I can close my eyes and still see that beautiful landscape, the clouds rolling in for the daily afternoon rain, and the beautiful people. We went there to share God with these people but I feel like we learned more about our Creator through their lives.
We spent our last night in Kenya in Nairobi at the safe house. That night we ate at the Carnivore, which is like a Brazilian stake house here in the states. Needless to say we got our fill of the meat we had been missing out on for the previous 10 days. Our sweet friends from Pleasanton, who have been living in Kenya for over a year now doing mission work, met us for dinner. Amanda and Jerrod filled us in on their experiences and shared with us a little more about the Kenyan lifestyle. It was so great to see them and we are so proud of the work they are doing to advance the Kingdom. The next morning we woke up early to get to the Nairobi National Park for a safari. We saw many beautiful animals. The giraffe's were amazing up close. We ate lunch at the little mall again and then headed to the market for souvenirs. The market experience could be a blog post of its own. We then headed back to the safe house to shower and pack up our trunks for the last time. We loaded everything into two vans and headed to the Java House for dinner. Wow, that was some great food at the Java House and even better milk shakes. After filling our bellies we were off to the airport to begin the first of two very long flights back to America.
We arrived home safely, ate some Mexican food, got a good nights rest, and eagerly anticipated picking up Keaton the next day. Poor Wilson, had to work the next morning, so William and I met my mother-in-law to get Keaton. He and William were just so giddy and excited to see each other. I couldn't quit squeezing and kissing him. Although it was great to be home, I still feel like a piece of my heart is still in Kenya. I know this is a super long post, but really it doesn't even begin to cover everything we experienced. I am so glad that God allowed us to take William with us because he was truly a blessing to our team and the people in Kenya. We are so appreciative of everybody who gave money and time praying to help make this trip of a lifetime possible for us. We will visit Kenya again in God's perfect timing.
We have over three thousand pictures, but here are some of our favorites. Enjoy!!!
Airports and Planes
This is our crazy team ready to get to Kenya!
At SA airport excited to get going
Poor Wilson carried William through airports a lot like this
Our group fixing to board our flight to Eldoret
Nairobi
You can see how many people are on the streets and sidewalks
Just a glimpse into the traffic
The security there was pretty intimidating
The slums
Dinner for sale
BTV and Noel Academy
This is the van that travels around each day picking up and dropping off kids for school. We counted one morning as 30+ kids piled out of that van.
The preschool aged kids were learning the color pink that day
This is one of the rooms that the kids who board sleep.
William pretty much became town mayor, he loved greeting all the kids as they went to and from lunch
William showing off some of his skills
Students at the morning flag raising ceremony. The recite scripture and sing hymns. Beautiful sight!
Orphanage
Sweet Charity, she reminded me so much of my friend Codi's daughter Kendal
Meet Bryan....Isn't he the cutest thing? I wish I could squeeze him right now!
A sweet girl from our church made some beaded cross necklaces and sent with us. This pic is right after we gave them each one. They were so proud of them.
This is where the kids in the orphanage dine. We were able to help serve them dinner and that was a huge blessing to us.
I don't remember this sweet boys name but he love wearing my sun glasses, they all did.
This is the nursery where several babies slept in each bed.
Wilson and Moses.
Moses was pretty quiet and shy but he LOVED being swung around. Wilson started a trend and ended up having to recruit help to swing around all the kids.
Gene and William. He liked Williams cap and we had an extra so William gave it to him.
Charity and Moses
This is my sweet Alvin on his birthday. We surprised him with some fun things which he sacrificed to give to some of the younger kids so they would be happy. So precious!!!
William picked out 15 Hot Wheels cars from his collection before we left and handed each kid in the orphanage one. They were so excited and William was so happy to see that a small gesture meant the world to them.
I just love this picture.
William with his new Kenyan buddies Moses and Alvin
VBS
This was our recreation team. Cody, Morgan, and Cody
Bible story team. Me, William, April, Wilson
Music Team. Caiti and Sarah
Our team with the children from the first school we visited.
This was one of the smaller schools we visited.
The students were so respectful and stood in unison to greet us when we walked into the room. They remained standing until we instructed them to sit.
They really couldn't get enough of William. He was a good sport, but by the end of the trip he told me he was tired of everybody touching him.
A good picture of what a typical classroom looks like
Construction
Working on filling in a trench, that later we dug back out and then filled again. Haha!
Gutters, Gutters, and more Gutters......
check out those ladders
This was the sweet man who wanted us to let William just be a kid.
William made us very proud. He worked his little tail off.
He was letting some of the workers try on his sunglasses. They thought they were pretty cool.
Traveling Through the Villages and Country Side
One afternoon we took a walk from our house to the river. This was a long muddy walk. We passed by many fields and peoples homes. Kids literally come out of the fields just to look at us and every now and then one would grab one of our hands. This was a walk I will never forget.
Haha they just want to shake William's hand and he just wants to help pick up the sticks they dropped.
This became a very familiar sight as many children have to care for their younger siblings.
Check out the kid touching Williams glasses. Some were very sneaky and would try to slip things from you before you knew it.
These boys had a great time entertaining Wilson with their dance moves one afternoon.
Check out this gorgeous landscape and there are those Kenyan clouds I mentioned.
I absolutely love this picture. Look closely and see all of those hands waving out of the window. We weren't even going to their school, but still they were so excited for us to just pass by.
Tea is a large export in Kenya. This is one of thousands of fields we passed with workers picking leaves.
William and sweet Morgan. He thinks she hung the moon.
We toured a bat cave and Wilson, bless his nasty little heart, got up close and personal with a couple.
Our team in the cave.
This is Joe! He will forever hold a place in our hearts.
I just love the colors in this picture.
Children would chase our bus as long as they could just trying to catch a glimpse of the white people.
I just love the joy on this girls face as she runs beside our bus.
Church and the Goat Dinner
All dressed up for church. This is the first time William had worn a tie and he thought he was big stuff.
This is after the service when we stayed to sing and dance.
There it is. That nasty goat meat. The guys had good fellowship cooking it and shared some of the better pieces with some of the local men who popped in to see what was cooking.
Until next time Joe!
Safari
No captions necessary :)
