Since January 19, I have woken up to a land that I was only acquainted with through books, photographs, television, movies, or stories told by others. I've stepped foot outside of my humble home (a two person tent), and been greeted by a haze filtered view of the Great Rift Valley, banana trees in Meru, or, perhaps the dusty, desolate terrain surrounding Tangi Tatu.   The last few months of my life have been, quite easily, the best months of my life, riddled with the most stellar and most difficult experiences I have endured. From trying, so, so hard to be patient with my...

Prisons are scary. They're filled with bad people. They might hurt me if I look at them or move the wrong way. These were the immediate, hasty assumptions that flooded my mind when I heard we'd be visiting the women's prison…then especially when I heard we'd also be going to the men's maximum security prison. As I walked into the prison, though, my worries were put to rest as I realized that these inmates are real people who just made a mistake at some point in their life (just like we all do). We visited the women first, and it was not at all like I expected....

Recently, my team and I had the privilege of visiting IDP camps, bringing food to them, visiting them, worshipping with them and sharing God’s Word.  IDP (Internally Displaced People) camps are filled with people who were kicked out of their homes about four years ago and are now forced to live in small tents.  Long story short, during the elections four years ago, tribalism flared up.  About 50 tribes live in Kenya.  While these tribes often get along, during the elections, things can get tense since which tribe has power can affect which tribe gets favored for...

 It’s been some weeks now and we’ve spent most of our time here in Kijabe working at the hospital. Some of us have some training in some areas like physical and speech therapy and counseling and they have helped out in those respective areas. Me, I’ve been getting to work in the kitchen. First day we just jumped right in, they handed me off to one of the guys there named Joseph who has now become my best friend there; he’s been working at the hospital for about fifteen years now, speaks seven different languages, English and the rest different tribal ones....

It took me going to another country, halfway across the world to realize just how big of a deal the United States of America is.  Walking through the bush of Maasai land I would constantly hear, “You are from America?? OBAMA??” To which we would typically just nod and say, “Yes, America, Obama, etc”.  Then I realized that more often than not, our encounters with people ended with them saying how much they wanted to come to America and visit us (but really, just to come to America).  The goal of a good parent here is to get their child to go to...

If you read my last blog, you’ll know that hospital work is way out of my comfort zone. Well, God likes to break us out of those comfort zones so we can grow in ways we would’ve never chosen without His direction. This past Monday the preschool I usually work at was closed, so I proceeded to head over to the AIC Kijabe Hospital. Performing arts major, Holly, brought her ukulele, and J.M., Jenna and I accompanied in song. We went from room to room, trying to bring a little joy to tough situations. A favorite was “Party In the USA”-how ironic. One of the rooms we sang...