Kenya 2019, We Arrived!

I left my home in Chagrin Falls, Ohio on June 12 at 10:00 AM, flew to JFK and then to London, meeting up with the rest of the team.  We landed in Nairobi, Kenya around 9:30 PM June 13.  

 

Molly, Doneva, and myself after finally stepping
out onto African soil.

Loading all of our luggage onto the van then heading
to The Mayfield Guest House for a good nights sleep. 

Our team of twelve, four who have traveled to Fiwagoh several times, and eight high school students, most of which were traveling to Kenya for the first time, woke up in Nairobi on Friday, June 14 ready for whatever we were called to do.  After 36 hours of traveling and a brief night of sleep, we hit the ground running:  breakfast at the Mayfield Guest House, a quick meeting/introduction and photo with my friend Musa, our usual team photo in front of the Mayfield, a stop in Nairobi to purchase 400+ Bibles (English, Swahili, and mother tongue translations as well as a few large print), a quick lunch at Java House, and then finishing with a two hour drive to Fiwagoh Mission School and Orphanage.  

Musa, myself, and Duncan Okuku taking our, now annual,
photo at The Mayfield Guest House.

Our annual team Mayfield photo less our team captain Ryan.

Heading to Fiwagoh and very happy.

While riding in the van to Fiwagoh, I sat next to Duncan Okuku who now does driving for Fiwagoh. We chatted about the many updates at Fiwagoh: who is no longer there and why, who is married, who has a baby, and many other random topics.  I had lots of questions. We also discussed how the various tribes in Kenya pronounce words differently from one another.  This makes so much sense to me now because on my first trip to Kenya one of my little friends, Lucy,  when asked what she wanted to be when she grew up, said “a pirate.”  I was a bit confused. Duncan explained in some tribes the ‘l’ is pronounced like an ‘r’ and visa versa.  So she actually wanted to be a pilot!  I also found out that our team was pronouncing the name of our nonprofit, Unafaa, incorrectly.  In Swahili if a word has ‘aa’ then that syllable is accented.  Instead of pronouncing it Unafaá, which means “you matter.”  We were pronouncing it like Unáfa, which means “you are dying.”  OOPs!

One of my questions for Okuku.  “Does that tree really grow like that or has it been genetically engineered or pruned to look like that?”  Answer:  “That is how it grows.  You often see them in front of houses, used as a landscape wall.”

The interesting palm tree.

We arrived at Fiwagoh at around 3:45 PM, with huge smiles and warm hugs impatiently waiting to greet us. “Welcome, Welcome happy to see you, happy to see you.”  These are the words 200+ kids and staff sing to us as we pull into the compound.  It is impossible not to have tears of joy flowing down your face.  Even as I type now, tears are filling my eyes. We chat and briefly get reconnected, while our luggage was taken to the team dorm.  

Joy fell in love with Tyler instantly.

As we head to our dorm our team found out we would no longer be dining in the team dorm, but would be having all of our meals in the Culinary Arts dining area (in the Trade School). Two of the experienced and licensed Culinary Art seniors from Fiwagoh, whom both work at restaurants outside of the orphanage, have been conducting a class for three of teens at Fiwagoh. These three are looking to pursue a career in catering and/or culinary arts and also hope to pass the Culinary exam after going through this course.  We became part of their training experience.  Lucky us, YUM!

The instructor, Duncan (Senior), and two of his students, Joyce and Angeline, are three of our amazing chefs.
Missing are Peter and Joseph.

The delicious cake presented to us for our first dinner.  I still crave the icing.

The culinary team went all out.  Our table always set with multiple pieces of silverware, napkins folded in creative ways rested on the plates, as we sat down one of the chefs would pull out our seat and place our napkin on our laps. The chef of the day, the one who planned the meal, would introduce the food which would be served. We would pray over the meal and the events to come, thanking God because He is so good all the time and then fill our plates and enjoy!!

The first day ended with the beginning of Sabbath celebration (they celebrate Sabbath from sundown Friday evening to sundown Saturday evening).  We are home!