Wandering Andrewly: Goodbye Kenya

Today is my last day in Kisumu. I will be heading to Nairobi tomorrow morning and if everything goes as planned (which you cannot take for granted at all here), I will sightseeing bit around Nairobi before heading to Cairo. Even though I'm excited about the next leg of my journey, I'm definitely going to miss Kenya and hope that I'll be able to return someday. I've learned a lot during this trip and found myself thinking about things that I realize I had largely ignored while in the US (poverty, corruption, government's role in helping people). Despite many of the frustrations that I had here, Kenya is a really beautiful country and I hope that I was able to capture a bit of it in the hundreds of pictures that I took here.

I realize that being here for roughly 2 months offered a greater immersion to the country than most other short term missions (which usually last about 2 weeks), allowing me to see patients and the children on a more regular basis, follow their progress, and get to know them better. Furthermore, I feel like I was able to get a better sense of the different concerns and obstacles that come with the operation of a missions organization. In short, a more real, non-sugarcoated experience.

To be honest, I don't really have the kind of spiritual high that one might get from leaving a retreat or something like that. But I think that's a good thing. I believe that I was able to experience God's work in a different way while in Africa and to find his presence in many not so obvious areas which I tried to translate in this blog. I was also able to see people's lives tangibly transformed by the gospel in positive ways.

It's hard to say whether or not this missions trip met my expectations prior to coming here, mostly because I wasn't really sure what to expect and had few expectations. I am extremely grateful for the people that I've met and for the friends that I've made- the team at Christ's Hope, the local volunteers, all the patients who opened their homes to us, all the children who wanted to talk to the mzungus, the staff at Maseno hospital. Again, I'm really looking forward to coming back to Kisumu, but until then I'm off to Cairo!

I'll be updating my blog (or at least trying to) while I am traveling - hence why the blog is called wanderingandrewly

The people we met and the friends we made

Some of the men of the discpleship group, some examples of people's lives being transformed

Yoshi (left) and Lee (right). I actually randomly went up to Yoshi at Nakumatt (Kenya's rough equivalent Walmart) because I thought he might be Korean. He turned out to be a Japanese student studying public health abroad in Kenya. We exchanged information and we met up twice for dinner and just hanging out. He had met Lee, who is Malaysian but from Taiwan who is also studying Public Health, and invited her also.

Kanako (middle) is also Japanese and in the same program with Yoshi, studying public health in Kisumu. She's interested in studying the mother-child transmission of HIV. Even though we couldn't communicate with each other 100% due to their somewhat limited English, we had a lot of fun and learned a lot

George is a local volunteer (now actually full-time staff with CHI) and someone who we worked with a frequently to visit patients around the villages. He was all around a great and funny guy and someone I'd really want to see again if I were to come to Kenya.

Another George (there are many people here named George) who was our guard for about half the week. He asked me to teach him guitar. He's getting officially married to his wife in the summer.

totally random: I helped to visit a bee-keeping operation, donning a bee suit, smoking the hives, and collecting honey. This is a program that aims to provide a sustainable source of income to Kenyans through raising bees and collecting honey

The people we worked at the bee hives with. The family was incredibly grateful and gave us a huge meal after the bee-keeping excursion

A child of one of the patients we visited. It's truly tragic - her mother and father ended up dying of AIDS and she herself is HIV positive. She's already at a ridiculous disadvantage at life, before she even realizes it. Her eyes are hauntingly similar to her mother's

One of the local children who lives with one of the girls we visited regularly (the patient we visited was orphaned when both of her parents died of AIDS). She was really friendly, I think she wanted to play with the mzungu

Marieke holding the baby of one of the patients - we don't get the test results for the baby until tomorrow

Lillian, another volunteer who we worked with frequently, teaching a bible lesson at the ministry care point in Nyahera

All of these children are either half or full orphans, where one or both of their parents have died of HIV/AIDS

Really rowdy bunch of kids at Mambo Leo. Like most other African kids, they loved getting their picture taken

Children at the remand center who left a really strong impression on me during my time in Kenya. So many times I wanted to smack them but I realize that kids really learn what they see; they're not born violent or inclined to yell back to adults. I saw that the aggression of the children is really the product of a cycle of abuse and so it is important to treat them with love (which sounds corny but very true)

Children at the R.O.C.K ministries performing a skit around the negative social effects of traditional African culture. They wrote the skit themselves and came up with all the costumes!

The younger children at the R.O.C.K waving goodbye. I'm really going to miss them

When they found out that I knew Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, they wanted me to demonstrate

He's a patient who we were taking care of whose stay nearly coincided with our stay in Kisumu. He had been abandoned by nearly everyone in his village when he was dying before Desmond took him into the house. There he fed him, clothed him, cleaned up his vomit, cleaned him. Sadly he passed away from meningitis due to his immunocompromised state. We went to his funeral, which was packed with people, and his mother took us aside and told us: "all these people at the funeral, they all abandoned him when he was sick and now they're acting like they were there for him -- your organization, complete strangers, you were the only ones that were there for him" This left a strong impression on me, immediately reminded me of Matthew 25:34-45:

"Then the King will say to those on his right, 'Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. 35For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, 36I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.'

37"Then the righteous will answer him, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? 38When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? 39When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?'

40"The King will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.'

41"Then he will say to those on his left, 'Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. 42For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, 43I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.'

44"They also will answer, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?'

45"He will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.'

This is another patient who Desmond took care of at the house as well. He had suffered a stroke and was unable to walk. Fortunately, he survived and is now going through rehabilitation to regain his strength

Pastor Martin and George visiting a patient in his home. This patient literally lives in a 1 room mud hut with walls that are falling apart. His previous home was burned to the ground - the only thing that he owns is a bucket

The things we ate:

I got really excited because I thought this was a Korean restaurant. Unfortunately I was wrong - Korean food doesn't exist here

I've grown to love mandazis (sort of like donuts) while in Kenya and chapati (sort of like naan, not pictured). I've grown to like a lot of Kenyan food and I'm looking forward to trying to find some good Kenyan or East African restaurants in NYC

This woman proudly displayed and paraded around the chickens that she would soon slaughter for our lunch at the health clinic

Similarly, we picked out the talapia that we wanted to eat (which was covered by swarms of flies) and then they deep fried it and served it to us. I tried to forget all the flies that had been eating it just moments before

We also had a lot of western style food. These pork chops, which we ate in a resort area off of Lake Victoria, were extremely delicious

the things we saw:

These rainbows appeared right outside our gate. The most vivd and complete rainbow that I have seen in Kenya

Masai Mara

herd of elephants walking away from the storm in Masai Mara

giraffe enjoying a meal of leaves at masai mara

I've never heard of this before. There was a rainbow around the sun

One of my favorite pictures from Masai mara

Kakamega Forest

we hiked up to the top of the largest hill to see the sunrise over kakamega forest - the only equitorial rainforest in Africa

This was a gigantic banana tree - just one of the many exotic plants in the rainforest

more pictures of the plant life in the forest

the view as the sun was rising over the forest

notice all the mist all around the forest

as daylight broke, the animals in the forest were going crazy. Even at the top of the hill, we could hear monkeys, birds, and other animals loud and clear