Are We Heading Back to Kenya Anytime Soon?

Hard to say. I think we had a wonderful time. But it’s a really long ways away...2 days of flying, not to mention the 12h delay getting out of Nairobi and 24h delay getting out of France! Zach made such a great connection with John Njane and felt really vested in Flow of Hope and would love to see it really take off. He also was introduced to groups striving toward better farming practices and reforestation projects he could easily fall into. For me, I think part of the romance of living overseas is learning the language and feeling submerged in the culture which is hard to do in Kijabe....lots of foreigners and as Kenya was a British colony, everyone speaks English, so it was a little harder to learn Swahili than I’d thought. I also had a hard time getting over thinking the blank stares from the nurses were because I was a white mzungu (foreigner) and a woman (not the typically authority figure)...but everyone assured me it was because I was new and everyone gets blank stares when they are new. I am sure I could get over this and definitely felt like it could get better with time. However, in Kijabe most of the missionaries live in separate areas and the missionary kids attend separate schools. Understandably to a degree, but the divide was a little too much for me. Maybe a different venue would call us back. On our way home we stayed at the Mennonite Guesthouse (felt a little like coming home). Our church in Philly, Circle of Hope was an affiliate of Mennonite Central Community. All the proceeds from the thrift store Zach helped build in Philly went toward supporting MCC. Their main missions overseas are focused on Water, Food, HIV/AIDS prevention/awareness and Peace Work. We met a young couple working with the Masai in HIV prevention who seemed really awesome and got me excited about working overseas, not to mention she was toting around 6 week old twins! We feel lucky for the time we were able to spend in Kenya, all the medical knowledge gained, and most importantly the new friends we made. I am forever grateful for this opportunity and look forward to what the future holds. Thank you.