We're here!

Just wanted to let everyone know we got here safely! We got to Nairobi late Monday night. Tuesday we had a relaxing day, went to the mall, got some froyo (anyone who knows me knows how exciting it was for me to find a froyo place in Kenya), and started our training back at the guest house.

Yesterday we went to a place called Amani Yaa Juu, which is a place where women from Kenya and other places all over Africa come and learn how to sew, make fabrics, make jewelry, etc. We took a tour, did some batiking (you stamp melted wax onto a fabric to create a pattern, and then dye it.. we each brought a t-shirt to batik) and went shopping. The women at Amani were so friendly. They sang when we came into the first room during the tour, and they all came and gave us each a huge hug. And we all LOVED this one woman named Maggie, who Mallory has known for years. She was the cutest, sweetest woman who gives the best hugs out of anyone I have ever met.

Other than that, we haven’t done too much yet this week. These few days have really been about bonding as a team. There are a total of five of us: four interns (Jackie Ader, Ryan Bradley, Shayne Carroll and myself) and our leader, Mallory. I love these girls, we all get along so well. We have WAY too much fun together and have a ton of inside jokes already, but we’ve also had some really awesome moments where we’ve been able to open up to each other and be vulnerable. There has been some crying… but rest assured that most of it has been from laughing. :)

Yesterday our assignment was to decide on a team Mission Statement for this trip. Here is what we came up with:

“We will strive to learn and form meaningful relationships by serving, loving, and listening to the kids, staff, and members of the community.

We hope to experience joy and bring joy to everyone we encounter.

We pray that we will grow in our relationships with Christ and have faith in Him

We are open to whatever God has planned for this trip and for our futures.” 

In a few minutes we are going to head to Kibera, the largest slum in Africa. We're meeting with an HIV+ ministry there called St. Martha's Ministry, which is a partner of Oasis. Oasis is hoping to build a children's home with St. Martha's in the future. I'm sure today will be an emotional day, as we will be witnessing an extreme level of poverty that none of us have ever experienced before. But it's good for us to get this experience because Kibera is where Oasis got its start. It's important for us to see where Oasis came from and also see the kind of poverty that many of the kids at the children's home would be living in if it weren't for Oasis.

Tomorrow we're going to visit another orphanage and tour a mission hospital in Kijabe. Saturday we head to the Hill! I'm so excited, I can't wait to see those kids!