Tuesday: day 2

Tuesday 30 July 2013 

Good morning pictures from the bus with Isaiah!(:

I feel like every day I'm going to have more and more to say, but never enough words to recreate all of the things I saw and felt-especially on days like today. We left Beacon of Hope this morning in small groups of 6-7 people to visit some of the homes of the people who come to the clinic. Our group walked to one of the slums down the street and even though I took a few pictures of the street on my camera, I felt wrong trying to take pictures of the people, so I hope my words can work well enough. The roads have garbage mixed in to the clay and huge ruts and puddles every where. There are chickens, roosters, donkeys and tons of goats on and beside the roads, and after almost getting hit by a truck, I learned that drivers don't avoid you, you have to avoid them. There are small shack like stores lining the road, people sell fruit and vegetables and shoes etc. A lot of people stare at us, but I think they just aren't sure of our intentions-so I just waved and smiled at everyone and they always smiled and waved back(: and when I said "Jambo!" They laughed and responded but I have no idea what they were saying, so I just smiled and pretended like I did.. It worked(: I think they can sense when people are uncomfortable, and I understand why they would be, but the weirdest thing about being here is that I feel like I'm just walking down a street I've been down a million times. Maybe I just painted my expectations so many times in my head that one of those scenes I created is exactly what it looks like here. If I was fluent in Swahili, I would feel like I was at home.

We turned off the main road and started walking through where the homes were. The first one that we visited had a sitting area that was the size of the bathroom at my house, not including the tub. But, somehow we all fit and sat in a close circle. We met the woman who lived there and her 11 month old son, Brian. She looked like she was my age, but has 3 other children (5, 7 & 9). Her other kids go to a
public school that is a long walk away from their home, because they don't have sponsors and aren't
able to go to the school at Beacon. A typical class at their school has 170 students to one teacher...one hundred and SEVENTY children! So the quality of education is very low, because the teacher has no
way to even make sure that all of the children have done their homework. We prayed for her and
right when we were about to leave, John smiled really big at us and started bouncing up and down(:
soooo cute!

The only way I can describe the way the slums are set up is that they are a maze. The next home was down a narrow walkway, then to the left then to the right, under a bunch of clotheslines and over a creek of dirty water, tucked in a corner to the left beyond that. This woman was a lot sicker than the first one we met. Her home was a little bigger, but very dark. The walls were made of cardboard and a patchwork of random wood and metal, and her clothesline was inside. We all went in and she told us her story. She has 3 children of her own, the oldest is 18, and she is also taking care of her brother's child. She is new to the area, after leaving her abusive husband and trying to protect her children and herself from him. She was just released from the hospital after being there for 10 days with chest pain, a headache that won't go away,  a lump in her neck and a sore throat. She has AIDS and we found out later that day that her CD4 count was in the 40's. She is unable to work anymore and therefore has no way to feed herself or her kids. Her neighbor gave her a bag of flour, but that was all she had. The woman who was taking us to the homes asked us if we had any words of encouragement for her, but we all were at a loss for words. What do you say to someone in that situation? A situation that none of us could ever even come close to understanding or having anything to remotely compare to? The only thing I could think to tell her is that lots of times God puts us through very difficult times, things that seem impossible, in order to bring us closer to Him and to help us realize that He alone is enough. And that even though it was her abusive husband that brought her here, moving also brought her closer to Beacon of Hope, where she can get free medical care, and support from others who are in a similar situation. The abuse sent her to a place where she can get
better. When we were praying, I had chills because I knew that God was already working, just because she had been connected with the Beacon and was in a safer place. 

When we got back, the waiting room at the clinic was full and there were a bunch of children that
looked sad and bored. So actually, they just looked like they needed some coloring books(: I

sat down with the 2 that were outside, they were both younger than 3, and didn't know what a crayon was or how to hold it.. Or that it wasn't food! But when I showed them how the color showed up on the paper, they wanted to color the whole world, especially once they discovered the markers. The floor,
their hands, their clothes, all had marker streaks on them. And before I knew it, there was a whole ciThe LOVED the bouncy balls and thought it was hilarious when they rolled away and had to chase them. It was so sweet seeing them come to life from something so simple. I went inside for a meeting and when I went back out, two of the girls were with their mom and one of them had a box of 16 crayons, all crammed in backwards with a topless blue marker stuck in the middle. She held up the box to show me and her mom was sitting a couple yards away holding her coloring book, trying to tell me something in Swahili. All I could understand was "thank you" and in English she said "she can study." I never even thought about the fact that most kids in the U.S. start preschool knowing how to use and  hold crayons and pencils, before they learn how to write. But here, its a skill that they won't know because they don't have the materials. 

We spent the rest of the afternoon filling hundreds of little brown envelopes with pre-dosed prescriptions for the pharmacy at the clinic Thursday. It took forever and really put in to perspective how many patients are going to be coming through. 

Tonight after dinner, we had a group meeting/devotional and everyone shared how they were feeling about everything they had seen and experienced. I think the main thing that kept coming up was the confusion of how much we are supposed to do on our own and how much we leave to prayer. But the realization I came to after today is that we have to accept and trust that God is always more that enough, sufficient, and knows better than we do on our own. We often have the "I got this" mentality, and think that we can just give these people money or food and fix the problem but everything we can do right now is only temporary, God is forever. And if we accept that God is enough then we are trusting that our prayers will be heard and answered, with out us then trying to come up with our own solutions to the problems 2 minutes after saying "amen." The hardest thing is knowing you could help someone, but also knowing that you, yourself, alone, could never be enough to lift each individual from that situation and make everything better. So, kind of    Like when Jesus asked when he was sick, did you visit? Maybe just being there and praying was all we needed to do. 

No sleeeep

Tuesday 30 July 2013

It's almost 1:30am and I have been wide awake for over an hour.. I guess my body is still adjusting to Kenyan time. 

Since I skipped a day of travel on the blog, I'll go back and start from the flight to Dubai(: the first 6 or 7 hours were great, they gave us hot lemony (idk if that's a word) smelling towels to wipe our faces, then served us lunch. The Indian couple beside me convinced me to try the Hindi vegetarian dish, which was rice, cabbage and cheese. I don't know how to describe the cheese with out it sounding really disgusting, buuut.. Just imagine hot cottage cheese, but instead of little clumps, it was cubes. Kind of like soupy tofu..? Anywayysss. It didn't taste too bad when I mixed the soupy part with the rice, but the cubes were a pretty weird consistency. I watched a bunch of movies and tried to sleep whenever I could get comfortable, but after about hour 8-9, my legs were constantly getting hit by the flight attendant cart because I had to stretch them in to the aisle to keep from cramping up. They turned down the lights for a little while and the ceiling of the plane was so cool! There were little LED  lights that looked like stars(: 

When we finally landed in Dubai, the malaria meds were  kicking my butt so I don't remember much except sleeping in a bunch of different strange positions on a bench. We had about 2 hours until our flight to Kenya. Before we got on the next plane, I went to one of the "duty free" stores and got a huge bottle of water, some "melon milk" (it sounded cool) and two snacks for only $1.74! Much better than the $4.25 I paid for only a bottle of water at RDU -__-

The flight from Dubai to Kenya wasn't bad at all, probably because I was so excited. I watched Cinderella, then slept most of the way because I had a window seat. Any time the captain came on the radio and said anything about landing in Kenya or the current weather in Kenya, I was just like "omgomgomgomg this is really real!!!" (In my head) and I got butterflies, the kind like when you're about to go on a first date and you're just waiting and hoping it'll be everything you built it up to be in your head (kind of corny, I know, but I'm half asleep and its the best analogy I could think of..) When we were descending, the sun was setting as we came through the clouds and it couldn't have been more perfect. I was in love with the country before we even touched down. The land looked different from any land I have ever flown over in the U.S., it was untouched, barren dirt with an occasional shrub or cluster of huts. And, somehow that made it even more beautiful-the fact that it was still exactly the way it had been created. Even as we got closer to the city, the areas that had small farms didn't look like farms in the U.S. Instead of everything being sectioned off in to grids and rows, you could tell they were working with the land, instead of trying to make it look a certain way or be something it isn't (I feel like I'm having a rambling hippie moment..)

When we landed, it took for.ev.er to get our luggage, but luckily no one lost any bags, except one carry on that was checked at the last minute. I went to the ATM and took out some money, but I didn't know how much I was getting out, I just made an educated guess and went with it, so hopefully it was the right amount! When we walked out of the airport there was a grassy area with life sized metal rhino sculptures, and to the right, across the street, there was a big wooden fence covered in bright graffiti. Hopefully when we go back it will be light outside so I can get some pictures(: 

Well, my eyes are finally getting tired, and I'm really hungry because my body still thinks that it is 7pm instead of 2am. Hopefully I will be able to get some sleep(: goodnight!

The first 24 hours part 2

During lunch, I was listening to Ruth and Bill Wismer talk about the schools they have been working with in Uganda through ConnectAbana. I've only been in Kenya for a day, but it was already pretty clear that Uganda is where I'm supposed to go next. Pretty overwhelming, but if this is my purpose, then all I can go is just follow His lead with an open heart and open mind. I started thinking maybe my medical background was just a stepping stone to come on this trip, but really I'm supposed to be working with the kids, doing something with art or Art2Africa, but it hasn't all been made clear yet.

After lunch we looked around the shop where they sell the things that they make, and of course I wanted to buy everything, but I did a pretty good job holding myself back. I still haven't gotten very good at figuring out the exchange rate with out a calculator, so it would be easy to spend all of my money and not realize it ;)

The medical team met with Michael from Beacon, who is going with us to set up the medical camp on Wednesday in Bissil. From our group, there are only 2 doctors, 2 nurse practicioners, a nurse and myself (& Matthew the clown), but we will be meeting local medical workers there. We tried to work out a vision of how the camp will work, but I kind of feel like we won't really know until we are there.

We got back and had an hour of down time, then had dinner and now my eyes will barely stay open. I have a sore throat and a weird headache above my eyes whenever I move my eyes too fast. But, I'm pretty sure it's from traveling for 30+ hours, the altitude, etc. hopefully it'll be gone in the morning! *fingers crossed* (: aaaand I need to take my malaria medication but my stomach is telling me "noooooooooooo".. It didn't make me feel so great the first two days, but I guess being nauseous is better than having malaria..

Tomorrow we are doing some home visits in the slums to meet with some of the patients from Beacon, so I'm sure I will have even more to write about at the end of the day!(: (& I'll try to take more pictures tomorrow)

The first 24 hours(:

Monday, 29 July 2013

So much has happened in the past 24 hours, I'm going to have to start taking notes on my iPad then copying them on to the blog when I can find wifi. I don't even know where to start!(: I thought that when I got here I would feel nervous because it was a new place and a complete different culture, but when we walked out of the airport it was almost like I had been here before. I don't really know how to describe it, but I guess it was kind of like when you're away from home for a long time and then you finally pull in the driveway, see your house and you can exhale. Except for me, it was walking out of the airport, seeing metal sculptures of rhinos and a huge wooden fence across the street covered in amazing graffiti, and smiling faces everywhere I turned. I guess I just knew I was exactly where I was supposed to be, and that feeling has only gotten stronger. 

The place where we are staying is about 20 minutes from the airport, and the bus ride here gave me flashbacks to China. No one uses turn signals, and paved roads aren't common. It was around 9pm, so all I could really see was headlights from oncoming traffic, usually coming straight at us because the driver would swerve in to the other "lane" to avoid the huge potholes. But, he seemed pretty good at it so I wasn't too worried.(:

We're staying at a guest house at a University, and I don't know if this town is called Kijiji, or the school... But it's a gated place and it's pretty nice. It doesn't look anything like a University in the U.S. There's a main dirt road that goes from one gate to another and there are tall plants on either side of the road. The school is very small, probably only 4 or 5 buildings. Off of the main road are houses and a small apartment complex. Also, there are random cats, dogs, roosters, (and apparently a monkey...) that roam around the property..

Last night when we got here, everyone was pretty worn out so we went to our rooms (2 people share each) halfway unpacked, and tried to sleep. The first thing I saw when I opened my suitcase was crayons-all.over.the place.. Of course the one box of crayons that dumped was one of the boxes of 64! I found all but 4 of them last night, then found the remaining 4 in my shoe this morning, not sure how that happened..haha(: 

This morning my roommate, Ashley, and I learned the hard way that our hot water didn't work... And didn't get hot, or anywhere near warm after being on for 15 mins. But, it definitely woke us up!  

We ate breakfast at the guest house, then left to go to Beacon of Hope for the day. "The Beacon" is a place that women and children who are affected by HIV/AIDS can go to receive free medical care. They also have a vocational school for the women, and a school for the children, up to age 8. We split in to two groups and toured the campus, starting with the clinic. It was a small building with tiny rooms and only one doctor, but it was very clean and organized. One of the therapists was telling us about what they do and it was incredible hearing how involved they are with the community. Most, if not all of the people who come to the clinic for care live in the slums nearby. If one of the patients misses an appointment, they go out and find them to make sure they are okay, and still on track with their medication. They have support groups and really do a lot to try to remove the shame that a lot of people who are "positive" feel. 

Next, we saw the vocational school where the women learn to sew and weave. For the wool rugs, they spin and dye the wool there. One of the women taught me how to weave, but her hands were moving so fast, it took me a while to get the hang of it. I finally figured out how to go across the whole row at one time, but I still wasn't as fast as her!! 

Then we went to the primary school, and  that's when God really started talking to me... He was just kind of like, "get used to this, because you're going to be in a lot more places like it." The school was really cute, there were 6 rooms-2 on 3 sides and an office on the fourth side-all in a square centered around a small courtyard in the middle. The walls were white with a blue roof, and the outside walls were covered in paintings of every different African animal I could think of, loveddddd it!(: When we got there, the kids were leaving to go to lunch, and we went to the dining room next as well. They were all packed in to low to the ground booth like tables, and even though in some classes there was a 30:1 student to teacher ratio, they were really well behaved. I wish I had recorded their faces when they saw Matthew Wright's magic tricks, it was priceless. Then we saw their garden and the new school they are building for higher grades. 

We had lunch there, and it was reeeaally good. I took most of my pictures on my camera, so I don't have a way to get them on here :( but, I did get a good picture of our lunch! It was rice, cabbage, squash, and some type of meat stew. It wasn't beef, pork or chicken... So I'm thinking goat? I might not want to know, but it was delicious!(:

DFW

Next stop, DUBAI! I just bought a neck pillow, so I am now fully prepared for this 14(?) hour flight(:    Hopefully.

After less than 2 hours of sleep, I woke up and realized that I never weighed my suitcase after stuffing it with coloring books and crayons........ It was over 70 lbs and the limit was 50 lbs. Ooops. So my super hero mother climbed in to the attic, got a smaller suitcase, and we split the big one in to two smaller ones. 

Like always, my family waited until I got through security and was out of sight, then we blew kisses aaaand I was off(:

Goodbyeeeeeee!

The team getting ready to leave RDU!

It is almost 11:30pm and I am still packing...Aaaand I have to be at the airport in less than 5 hours..

I never thought that I would have TOO MANY coloring books and crayons to fit in my luggage and carry ons, but it is really a blessing how much I have received-even in the past few days!

& When I see my little Kenyan Picassos at work, all of this last minute packing of supplies will be worth it!(:

-NancyCaroline