Well the trip is done and I am back in North Dakota once again. Sorry it has taken me so long to finish writing about the trip on the blog. I am going to blame it on jet-lag. Here is a little bit about what happened in my last week in Kenya:
It was very sad to leave our friends and what had become our home in Chogoria. We had a wonderful send-off dinner with staff of both the hospital and school, compete with gifts of traditional Maasi wraps. It was followed by fun with the students with whom we had become good friends.
The trip back to Nairobi included two stops. The first was a preschool/orphanage for children with parents affected by HIV/AIDS. The place was still very new, but had already made a big difference in the lives of these children. They were learning a lot and were provided with some stability and certainty in their lives. The second place was a daycare center associated with the preschool we had visited. It was started by a nurse at the hospital in Chogoria. She saw a need for children in the area who were not old enough to attend the preschool. Unfortunately a few days before our visit it was robbed. The lady who ran it found out her mother had become very sick. In her haste to leave she left the building unlocked. The entire place was cleaned out so they had been unable to be open since. We were all able to donate a small amount of money so the daycare could buy mattresses and reopen again.
We were unable to get in contact with the school we were suppose to visit on Friday so instead we were able to spend 2 days at a place called Ngong Road Children Association. On Friday we had the opportunity to shadow the case workers on their visits to the homes of the children in the program. The children in this program all live in the slums of Nairobi and have been affect by HIV/AIDS in some way (either their parents have it or have died from it). It was a very eye opening experience to see up close the living conditions in the in slums. Every Saturday Ngong Road puts on a Saturday Program for all the kids. We were lucky that it fit perfectly in our schedule to attend. It was a lot of fun to be able to play and interact with the children. During the day, they read, get lunch, play team building games, and a lot of other fun things.
The Dahl family (Steve, Candace, Daniel, Charlie and I) have sponsored a child through this organization. So I had to incredible opportunity to meet this wonderful child. His name in Brillion John and he is 9 years old. I took him and a case worker out for lunch followed by a trip to the store to buy him a new pair of shoes and some food for his family. Ngong Road is an incredible organization that is doing a lot of good for the lives and futures of these children. For more information on this organization and to find out how you can sponsor a child you can visit their website
http://ngongroad.org/.
We were fortunate enough to be able to end our trip with a safari in the Maasi Mara which is the Kenya portion of the Serengeti. To get there we passed through the Rift Valley.
A synopsis of the animals we saw were elephants, zebra, wildebeest, water buffalo, giraffes, kudu, ostriches, and probably more I am forgetting.
The highlights were definetly the glimpse we got of a cheetah and the "abundance" of black rhino we saw (they are very rare, but we were very luck and saw 5 all together).
After about 2 days on safari we headed back to Nairobi for our flight home. We arrived safely in Fargo after 4 different flights totaling about 20 hours in the air. Although some of our luggage (including both of my checked bags) were left behind in Detroit. Luckily they arrived the next day with no damage. Since I arrived home I have been spending the last few days recovering from jet-lag, sleeping, catching up, and relaxing. Overall it was a wonderful and eye-opening experience that I will never forget!
Thanks everyone for your love and support throughout my preparation and trip. I am so lucky to have so many people that love and care about me :)
