“To go is to see.”
-Somewhere in Mathare Slum
My mom and her friend Laurel arrived in Nairobi on the morning of December 5th. They looked tired, but not as tired as I remember being on my own flight to Nairobi. They were excited to see what Kenya was all about and I had a busy itinerary planned for them.
During our first breakfast as a group, we all heard about Hayden’s interaction with a Kenyan police officer the day before. He was riding on the back of a motorcycle and they took a pedestrian bridge over a divided highway. A police officer stopped them and let Hayden know that he was under arrest.
“Really??!! Because I don’t feel like I’m under arrest!!”
Somehow he escaped and made it back to the Amani Center. Laurel was so impressed that she adopted him for the next 10 days. For the rest of their trip we had Mama Jacob and Mama Hayden taking care of us.
The Work
The first worksite we visited was Alfajiri. Alfajiri works with street kids, helping them to get into rehab centers, schools, and safe homes. Alfajiri means “dawn” in English and the organization picked the name because the street kids aren’t scared anymore once the sun comes up. Lenore, the founder of Alfajiri, took the Mamas as soon as we arrived and spoke with them about the program. By the end of their talk, Mama Jacob was convinced that she had just met a living saint. The Mamas joined in for the rest of the morning’s activities (karate and dance) and then helped us serve lunch. After lunch, Mom decided to put her medical skills to use. Lewis, the youngest boy there (6 or 7 years old), had something stuck deep in the palm of his hand. She ended up digging a small rock out of his hand and bandaging it up. He was by her side for the rest of the day. After the short prayer service in the chapel that ends the day’s program we walked with the boys back out to the highway. They started heading for the underpass that they sleep under and we hopped on a matatu for the Amani Center.
The next worksite we went to was a convent of Sisters living deep in Mathare slum. They run a special needs orphanage, a primary school, and a home for new mothers. We always draw a crowd walking through Mathare but this was especially true when we increased the size of the group from 3 to 5. Between walking through Mathare today and the matatu rides to and from Alfajiri even just getting to the worksites is quite an experience. The Mother Superior gave the Mamas and I a tour of the place and then we joined Trenton and Hayden. They were already feeding the special needs children their lunch for the day. We joined in and after feeding everyone we got them put to bed for their afternoon nap. Afterwards, the Mother Superior insisted on having snacks and juice before the journey back home. On our walk home the Mamas spotted a poster with the quote, “To go is to see.” We all felt it was a fitting catchphrase for the trip that they were on.
The Play
Our big excursion planned was a trip to Kenya’s east coast. On Thursday afternoon we met James and his kids at the train station for the journey to Mombasa. The Mamas saw some of their first African animals as we passed through Tsavo National Park, spotting a couple of elephants and giraffes. As we got off the train in Mombasa the first thing that we all noticed was the heat. Nairobi is never too hot because of it’s elevation, but we were basically at sea level now. When we entered our apartment for the night, the AC was turned off and the place felt like a sauna. After calling the host, we learned that the AC costs extra. “We’ll pay!” The next day we took a ferry to Diani Beach and spent a couple days there. We did some snorkeling, beach volleyball, and cornhole. There was also plenty of time spent lounging in the sun and Indian Ocean. The Johnnies explored some of the bars and clubs in the area, staying up just late enough on both nights to see the sunrise over the Indian Ocean before getting a couple hours of sleep. I think the highlight of the trip for the volunteers was when the Mamas cooked up some chicken alfredo for all of us. With no functional knives and an exploding stove they were able to chef up a masterpiece!
For one of their last days in Kenya the Mamas and I did a morning drive through Nairobi National Park. We saw a lot of animals and having the Nairobi skyline in the background was an interesting change from Mt. Kilimanjaro in Amboseli. After our drive we went to the elephant orphanage. They run a 1-hour program a day where you get to meet all the elephants and one rhino. They each down a couple bottles (3 L each) of milk before running back out into the section of the park that they live in. Some of them are dexterous enough to hold the bottles themselves. Once they’re old enough, the orphanage slowly reintroduces them into Tsavo National Park. After a quick visit to the Giraffe Center, we were back at the Amani Center.
Before I knew it I was booking an early morning uber for the Mamas to get back to the airport. They dealt with the heat, the bugs, the exploding stove, and the intermittent power supply better than I ever could have imagined. You can come visit again anytime!
Thanks for reading!