Kenya was beautiful and so hot and humid… It reminded me of home more than any other country, mainly because of the weather. Two teams from our squad went to Kenya while everyone else went to Ethiopia. We ended up on the coast while the other team was in the mountains. Both teams worked with Manna Worldwide.
Our team lived in a two bedroom apartment. A German couple lived next door, we had a guard dog named Anissa, and our landlord, who lived next door, was a Rumba singer. The CEO of Manna Worldwide, Allan, was our host.. we saw him weekly.
Our ministry was kind of split up this month so here it is by week…
Week 1 we worked at Good News School playing games with kids, doing morning devotionals/skits, serving lunch, and doing door to door evangelism. Good News School is grades KG1-8th grade so preschool to 8th grade. 
Everyone loves making silly faces when the camera comes out.
This is us getting ready to play a massive game of four corners. This quickly became their favorite game.
This is the school yard as the children are waiting to go in to eat lunch. There are not enough plates for everyone to eat at the same time so the older kids have to wait for dishes to be cleaned to eat.
Sometimes when you are in KG1 (aka preschool) you get to distracted to eat and you need a little help.
This was our first day at the school… serving leftovers to the children that came in late.
If you look very closely you can see a little boy in that coconut tree. The teachers wanted us to each get a coconut before we left so they sent an older boy up into the tree.
I couldn’t finish my whole coconut by myself so I gave this crew some coconut juice baby bird style.
Week 2 we went to New Life Academy and we did the same thing as the previous week.
Lunch time is so stinkin’ cute I can’t stand it.
This is Festus. He is one of the people in charge of the kitchen at New Life Academy. We got to work with him along with many other women as they cooked breakfast and lunch for the children everyday. They taught us how to make mendaze (which is basically donuts) for the children one day. It is so amazing to watch them cook over these hot coals.
I loved watching the women work in the kitchen especially when they carried their children on their backs.
Both Good News Academy and New Life Academy had a graduation ceremony this year. These students are practicing for the ceremony. Both schools have 8th grade classes graduating for the first time. These students started at this school when it began as KG1 students and they made it all the way through to 8th grade. This is a huge deal and beautiful to watch as the students and teachers are all so proud of themselves and each other.
Our 3rd week consisted of painting, lots of painting. We painted the church at the high school that both Good News and New Life students feed into. Fun fact: as I look back at pictures from month 1-3 I am basically wearing the same thing.. this shirt.. so I ditched it after this month (sorry Boo.. Shock Running Club for Life). My teammates loved making fun of me about it.
On one of our adventure days we went to the beach. Y’all, I touched the Indian Ocean! It’s so so so hot in case y’all were wondering. Also you can take a camel ride on the beach if your heart so desires.
Another day off… 5 of my teammates went on an overnight Safari while Brooks, Cabe (our squad leader) and myself stayed home. The guys wanted to rent motorcycles/a dirt bike so I tagged along. We rode around the city and eventually found ourselves back at the beach. This was one of my favorite days on the race so far. This month we had a guy named Alex that drove us everywhere so it was nice to be able to explore the city on our own. No worries it was safe..ish.. Cabe was a great driver and we only got run off the road twice. Oops!
This beautiful, crazy lady is Mami Anne. She was in charge of our lunch everyday. She kept us well fed and she frequently called and texted to check up on us on the weekends. She loved us so well and I miss her dearly. She took Amanda and I to get dresses made one day and of course we had to get a picture with me wearing it.
One cool thing about this month is that we had our own kitchen and we got to cook for ourselves. So about every other day we went to the grocery store and we took turns cooking. It was actually fun and we have some bomb cooks on our team.. who knew?!
Thanksgiving was our first big holiday away from home and it was so good. We each picked a dish and cooked. We had chicken, mashed potatoes, green beans, homeade rolls that Mami Anne helped Amanda cook in hot sand, and stuffing. After eating our feast we went to a restaurant nearby and we got dessert and talked to our families. It was a good day. What a beautiful new normal it was.
The teachers, pastors, and people of this community in Mombasa, Kenya loved us like family and made us feel so welcomed. I have said it before and I will say it again… what a beautiful thing it is to find family around the world.
Kenya was good. Being the only team in that area of Kenya was difficult at times, but our team grew closer as a family. The Lord taught me about myself and about mercy this month. On the race so far we have not worked explicitly with children and that has been hard for me… I came on the race to love children. However, the two weeks we had at the schools was so good for my soul. I went home every day feeling the good kind of tired and for that I am thankful.
We’re doing the thing!
Much love, Carson
