I’m in KENYA. Ah, it feels so so wonderful to be back on
African soil again. My heart and soul
feels at home here. I’m excited to see
the ways in which the Lord further ties my heart to this place.
Our journey to Nairobi, Kenya was an adventure in
itself. There is definitely a culture
that goes with traveling. Combined with the
culture of the race, this meant:
Gathering at the Dulles Airport in Washington D.C. at 6pm,
shuffling around 47ish people through security, hurriedly trying to scarf down
our last “American� meal and boarding our plane to Qatar at 10:50pm. Now, if none of you have ever flown Air Qatar
before, I would recommend it times 1000.
Seriously the nicest staff ever (our stewardess would giggle at us every
time we talked to her, so cute), delicious food (especially when they serve Ben
& Jerry’s Ice Cream twice throughout the flight) and really comfortable
seats (which is a necessity when you have red-eye flights two nights in a
rowbfgbf.) <—unnecessary
letters added by my well-mannered leader Lucas Tillman. Musical choices on the plane were also a
plus, especially when Celine Dion’s “My Heart Will Go On� is silently sung and
interpretive danced to in unison by 6 people (which can be seen below). Anyways, bottom line, go to
Qatar, or at least fly on their planes.
One truly deceiving aspect of traveling is the time
differences. So we left Washington D.C.
at 10:50pm, and landed in Qatar at 11:30am.
But because Qatar is 6 hours ahead of D.C., it was 5:30pm when we got
there. Throws you off a little bit. We took a bus from the plane to the Qatarian
Airport (therefore walked on the soil, so I’m counting it as a place I’ve “been
to�), and then relaxed in the airport for about 6 hours. It was fascinating for me to see the Middle
Eastern culture, even just present within the airport. Everyone was so incredibly nice and gracious
to us, because not only does our skin color gives us away, but our loud manner
of interacting does as well. Especially when planking is involved.
I think we
gave them a few good laughs though. In
particular when the women in the bathroom were trying to explain what the
shower-head looking item next to the toilet was. This is a year of trying new
things 🙂. We also attracted a group of Russian
musicians and combined with some musical beings on our squad, we were able to
hold a pretty decent impromptu jam session.
After our experience in Qatar, we boarded our plane for
Kenya around 1am. Another interesting
aspect of traveling are the random times you get fed. Receiving our dinner around 2:30am was a
completely normal expectation. Majority
of us attempted to try and get some sleep, myself included, but the excitement
about landing in Kenya was keeping me from fully falling asleep. It was a surreal experience realizing that
our arrival in Nairobi was marking the beginning of living and experiencing 11
different countries, majority of which are underdeveloped. It was getting me so pumped and ready to
bring God’s Kingdom. Ahh, it gets me
pumped every time I think about it!
We arrived in Nairobi, Kenya around 6am on Sunday, August 7th. After 39 hours of travel, and our bodies
believing it was around midnight, were slightly exhausted to say the
least. Luckily, we were in Kenya and
filled with the Spirit, so plenty of happiness and excitement was present. A spirit of goofiness was also present,
particularly when I lost a game and had to do 10 pushups on tops of the seats
as we were on our bus to the hostel.
Luckily I got a good plank in there. 🙂
We were welcomed to the Milimani Backpacker’s Hostel in
Nairobi by loving signs
a tree on fire (prophetic words that had previously
been spoken over our team)
and beds.
After napping for a few hours, I felt re-energized and the reality of
where I was truly began to hit me. We
decided to explore a bit, and ended up crashing/being welcomed into the latter
end of a Kenyan wedding reception. Our
hostel is in a nicer part of the city, and the wedding was definitely more on
the wealthy side. There were many
similarities between what a wedding reception in the U.S. looks like and what
this reception was like. There was a lot
of love, a lot of beauty and a fun spirit to it. My absolute favorite part of the day and what
solidified the joy that Africa brings to my heart was when a little Kenyan
girl, named Faith, came up to me and would not let go of my hand. Even when I went to fix her shirt and shoes
for her, she would not relinquish my fingers.
I loved it.
After the wedding, we had some dinner and went to bed super
early. I was able to get a full 11 hours
of sleep, which was glorious. The jet
lag is still hitting me a little bit, but we are staying at the hostel tonight
as well, so I should be able to rest some more.
I am extremely excited for tomorrow, as it is the day we head to Busia,
Kenya, where our ministry contacts are! Please
be praying that travel there will go smoothly and that we would be a light to
everyone we come into contact with!
Thanks for reading my update! 🙂
Have a great Monday everyone!
Enjoy 🙂 Maybe put on “My Heart Will Go On” by Celine Dion while viewing for added effect.
