Sept 20 - Returning Home, Medical Supplies and the 'Hood

     Our third day in Kenya, we got to return to the house where I stayed on my previous two visits to Kenya. Marafiki’s Volunteer House in Kikuyu, about a ten-minute walk from where we were staying this time.

 Not much has changed. It is still a beautiful house.   

 Even if it needs a little sprucing up, and a lot of interior decorating.

 But we weren’t there to admire the surroundings.

 We had arrived to clean up the donated medications and other medical supplies, discarding what was expired and organizing what was still good. I wish I would have taken a before picture.

 Nearly every time I go on one of these trips, someone will ask me if I would like to take some medical supplies along. This is why I decline.

 They get a lot of donations and unless they keep track of what they have, a lot of them unfortunately go to waste. I made an Excel Spreadsheet of what they had left so hopefully it will go to better use.

 The rest of the pictures are of walking around the Kidfarmaco neighborhood. I think I finally had myself acclimatized to the area so that I wouldn’t get lost.

 It’s a quiet little neighborhood with a lot of character. It feels like home to me.

Sept 19 - Cleaning the Hospital and then some

     When we were making our plans to return to Kenya this September, I’d told our hosts some of the things we wanted to do, places we wanted to see. There was, however, never a formulated plan. Each evening, our host, Marta, would say something like, maybe tomorrow you can do such and such. And we were like, sounds good, but we’d go to bed not knowing really what we were going to do or where we were going to go or who with, not even what time any of this might happen. And this was no one’s fault; that is just how they roll in Africa. And I’ve been there enough to know that I had to roll that way as well.

 The morning of our second day there, Thursday, after we’d gotten dressed, eaten breakfast and felt ready for the day, Marta asked us if we wanted to go to the hospital in Kikuyu to clean with some of the other volunteers. And could we meet them at the main drag in 45 minutes? Of course, my partner for the trip, Denise, and I got ourselves together and after a much longer than necessary hike out of our burg to the main road (I should have taken pictures), we arrived at the designated location with time to spare.

 Two matatu rides later, our group arrived at the Gichuru Dispensary in Kikuyu.

 Not what any of us in the US would think of as a hospital – a series of dusty cement block and tin-sided buildings, with peeling paint, screenless windows hanging open and random garbage laying around.

 We washed the windows,

 Picked up garbage,

 And gave it our best effort at making the grounds presentable.

 Until the male volunteers devised a curling match along one side of one of the buildings.

 You gotta have fun sometimes, right?

 Or at least make sure you come to the clinic dressed properly.

 When we had done everything we could, we took a matatu back to Kikuyu town and several of us walked to Crave restaurant for lunch.. 

 Let me zoom in to show you some of the menu. Choma is roasted meat and 1,000 KSH equals about $10. 

 After eating, we parted ways, so that Denise and I could get some cash at the ATM and some food supplies at Selfridges store.

 Guess I'll show you a closeup of Selfridges too. It's a three-story Walmart, only with very narrow aisles and not a huge selection of brands, but it's adequate for anything we needed. 

 Didn’t go shopping in the Kikuyu market though. I’ve been into that market before and just – don’t know – rather shop in a real store.

 We walked back to our neighborhood of Kidfarmaco and I once again got us lost. I just needed a short rest.

 It was, I believe, the last day that we got lost, though, so I don’t think we did too bad.

Sept 18 – My Compassion Child

     Wednesday, September 18, was our first day in Kenya. In 2015, I had gone to visit the girl I sponsor through Compassion, and this time I asked that they bring her to Nairobi so that she could get out of her little, dusty village and see some of the land.

 Compassion’s office in Nairobi chose Stedmark Gardens and Animal Park. They met us at our house and we all drove to the park in a rented car. The park was very nice and we all enjoyed seeing (and holding!) the various animals.

 Birds.

 Lots of them. I mean, lots!

 These are only a fraction of the pictures of them all.

 Then there were the snakes.

 Lots of them too.

 Probably too many.

 And of course, when asked who wanted to hold one, I jumped in.

 I insisted my Compassion child at least touch it. She just barely did.

 This little chameleon was much cuter, but his feet were sticky.

 Got to pet the female cheetah next.

 She was adorable wrapped around her little tree.

 The lions were not as exciting.

 Neither were the monkeys.

 I got yelled at for going into the wrong bathroom, even though I was just washing my hands.

 The view from where we ate our lunch.

 Finally time to hand out gifts.

 The extent of my creativity – typing her name on the cover of this sketchbook.

 Here’s where the talent shines – the quilt my church’s ladies aid donated to Mueni’s family.

 That’s all, Folks.

 God bless you, Mueni. I’ll always keep you in my prayers. Thank You, Lord, for allowing me this day with her.

September 16 and 17, the trip to Kenya and our arrival

     I’m going to make this post short, but I wanted to let you know that we had a successful trip to Kenya and back. Yeah! First trip where nothing went awry, either just before or while we were in-country. (If you don’t recall the many mishaps on all of my previous trips – well, you’ll just have to try to find them on my blog or ask me someday when we both have enough time.)

 Outside of Loew’s Hotel, where we parked Denise’s car and caught a shuttle to O’Hare.

 I’m pretty sure not our plane, but at least the same line.  

 We flew from Chicago to Frankfurt, Germany, where we had a four-hour layover, which was the perfect amount of time to grab something to eat, get to our gate, and just put our feet up. Here we are flying out of Frankfurt.

 After that eight-hour flight and four-hour layer, it was another eight-hour flight to Nairobi. Does make for a long day and a half, or whatever it is with the additional eight-hour time change to really throw me off.

 On the plane. Sorry, Denise, it’s the best picture I had.

 Our home away from home for the next two weeks.

 The view just outside the gate.

 The dining room and living room of our gracious hosts.

 My bedroom . . .

 With an en suite bathroom.

 People always seem to think that where we stay in Africa has none of the modern conveniences of home. Totally not true. This trip we had hot running water and electricity all of the time, and even WiFi for most of our stay. Makes it hard to come home.

 Ok, but this honey really makes it hard to leave.