On a Mission: Traveling to Kenya (1 of 6)

LtoR: Mary Helen, Cindy, Thuyvi, Mary,
Adam, Me, Roger, Jordan, Taylor, & Nick.
Not pictured: Lacey, Britney, Katie, & Meredith

So I decided to sit down and actually finally share some details on my mission trip. I was blessed that so many of you were a part of this experience through your generous prayers and giving, and I owe it to you all to share bits and pieces of that story. Plus, I did promise I would. I will try to include all the details, but so much happened - physically, emotionally, and spiritually that I know I won't be able to completely do the entire trip justice through the written word.  The trip was truly something that can only be experienced to completely understand it. Though I will try my best to share it as best I can... please bear with me. I plan on writing these in a series of posts, because there is so much to put in that you probably won't have time to read it all in one sitting and I definitely won't have time to write it all. I can't promise the writing will be good, because I get emotional even thinking about this trip. So here goes....

So I flew out of Memphis on Thursday, Nov. 15th, with a crew of nine other people, most of whom also live in Memphis. There were two other girls who flew out of North Carolina and Chicago that met us there, but for the most part we all left from Memphis.

I have to admit, there couldn't have been a better group of people to travel on a mission trip with. I really only knew a few of them prior to this trip, but after leaving... well, it sounds total cheese-ball, but I picture them as extended family. Each one means something special to me, and I am so blessed to call them my friends!

Flying from Paris to Nairobi
directly over the Swiss Alps.
Pictures didn't do them justice!

Anyway, so after the roughly 24 hours of straight traveling, where I only had to climb over poor Thuyvi (pronounced Tree-Vee) and the unlucky random dude sitting next to the pregnant chick, to go pee roughly 137 times, we finally made it through Atlanta, Paris, and then to Nairobi, Kenya. After a surprisingly smooth trip through customs, it was 12:30AM the morning of Saturday, Nov. 17th when we arrived at our Mission Home that we would be staying in. That means it was about 3:30PM at home in Memphis, TN on Friday the 16th. So we were definitely tired, but more excited than anything.

When we arrived at our mission home, Wangeshi (pronounced Whaan-gesh-ee), to whom the home belonged to, had a fabulous meal ready for us... complete with Kenyan tea afterward. (I'll talk about the tea tomorrow...) It was pretty cool.... besides the fact that it was 12:30am and I had slept maybe five hours total over the past 24 hours. After dinner, we all got ready for bed and brushed our teeth, without faucet water mind you, while sharing two bathrooms. (A couple girls maaayyy or may not have brushed our teeth and spit out the window into the rain in order to get this done in a timely fashion.... classy, I know. Don't judge. When in Kenya...). By the time we all crawled into bed, it was 2:30am.

Umm... come 6:00am the chickens and roosters RIGHT OUTSIDE OUR BEDROOM WINDOW decided it was time to wake the entire continent of Africa up.  Not cool, chickens. Not cool....

Well, it wasn't cool until I looked out the window and literally saw this opening scene from The Lion King.

It was beautiful. The rain from the night before had left some lingering clouds and I was able to see an amazing sunrise. Granted, there were a few buildings that should have been in the picture, since we were staying within the city limits, but you get the jist. Too bad I was too lazy tired to get up and take my butt to the window to get a picture.  Oops.

As I mentioned, our entire group stayed in Wangeshi's mission home. Wengeshi and her family own a  large, gated home in a suburb of Nairobi called RuiRu. There are three bedrooms and two bathrooms upstairs, and at least one or two bedrooms and a bath downstairs (that I didn't look in because Wengeshi & her family stayed in them, so I don't really know exactly). Our entire group stayed upstairs, crammed like sardines snuggled up in the three bedrooms. Six of us girls shared three beds in the largest of the rooms, with luggage strewn everywhere.

Yes. You read that right...

Six of us.

In three beds.

It was rather interesting, smelly,  cozy.

As horrible as the idea of rooming like that for over a week may sound to you all, I actually didn't find it too bad (though I could be completely alone in that statement when it comes to the other girls' opinions). I had mentally prepared myself for tight quarters and sort of looked at it like one giant sorority girl type of sleepover. It was kind of fun, staying up chatting and getting to know everyone. :-)

This is an example of a very NICE public toilet...
just to give you an idea. Luckily, we were able to
sit on the toilet at Wengeshi's. But this might 
give you an idea of the rest of our trip.

Other than being tight with so many people packed in so few rooms, the living situation was very nice. Wengeshi and her family cooked us amazing meals every morning and night, and our beds were very comfortable. The only issue there was really dealing with the bathroom situation. The bathrooms in Kenya are.... well.... different. Luckily when at Wengeshi's house, we did have actual toilets that flushed (which, I'll be honest, were a very rare site in the areas we spent more of our time). However, the showering process was interesting. The bathrooms tended to be long and skinny in nature, with the sink close to the door and then the shower head on the ceiling in the middle and then the toilet at the back. In the corner behind the toilet, there was a large drain and the floor slightly slanted down towards the drain. Which meant that you showered in the MIDDLE of the bathroom. No shower curtain. No door. No nothing for privacy. I could have literally sat on the pot, dropped a dook or two and showered at the same time.... (which might not be a bad idea for some people, come to think of it... Whoa. Sorry. Those last couple sentences probably went a tad too far. Oops. My apologies.) Anyway, the point is, when you showered, everything... and I mean everything... in the bathroom got wet. Plus, with 14 people vying for the coveted bathroom time and minimal hot water, we all tried to shower as little as possible.... (hence my "smelly" comment from earlier).

Oh yeah... and the overhead lights didn't work in the bathrooms... so at night it was pitch black. It was stellar. ;-)

Anyway, since I've rattled on probably longer than your attention spans (did I lose you at the "dropping a dook" part?), I'll go ahead and wait until the next post  to share the details of the first full day with you.  Until then... Kwaheri!