My Time in Kenya Journal Entries
Morgan and I were blessed with an opportunity to travel to Kenya with two team members to do some speaking and ministry.
We embarked on our trip Dec 30th, 2022. When we arrived at the Seattle airport we had to traverse three trains. We were the last to board our plane to Doha. I got to watch 3 movies; A Muppet Christmas Carol, Rise of Gru, and See How They Run. Read a bit, slept, and played some games.
Our flight from Seattle got in late, we had 45 minutes to make our connection and we had to go through international transfer security. We found our gate and had to run to the opposite side of this gigantic airport. However, by the time we made it, we had missed our flight. Customer service was great and took care of us. We spent an extra six hours in Doha. Walked around, played games in the Oreo Cafe, ate, and slept. I honestly loved it.
Jan 1st 2023 we landed in Kenya a little after 7 am but didn’t make it to baggage claim until 8:27 We got stopped at the health checkpoint because of late flights our covid tests had expired. The supervisor understood and granted us grace. As we were leaving the airport, we got stopped by an airport criminal investigator. He asked to see our papers and claimed he saw us with the health supervisor. He let the boys and Morgan go but kept me. He checked my passport, asked me how long I was staying, and took my number. As we walked outside, he asked me a second time why the health supervisor stopped us and I told him the same story. We continued to walk to the shuttles, where he fist-bumped the bus driver and they exchanged words. Everyone boarded but me. He pulled me to the side and asked me a third time why the health supervisor was talking to us and asked me to relax. (I thought I was keeping my cool) Then he proceeded to tell me he “wants me to have a good time in his country and he is not questioning anyone else. If you take care of me and buy my lunch. I won’t hold you any longer and believe your story” I informed him I had no cash on me and he stopped me before making it to the ATM. His response was, “That’s okay you go talk to your wife. $100-200 will be fine. I walked over, spoke with Morgan, chose the cheapest option, and gave him the $100. Honestly, I could have pushed back but I was concerned about the team having a chance to rest and shower at the hotel before getting picked up to make the drive to where the conference was being held. The leadership of the organization we travel with kindly reimbursed the $100.
We met Kris in the lobby who is from Oklahoma and also there for the conference. We loaded up, and as we traveled we saw giraffes and zebras on the side of the road grazing. SO COOL!!
We made it to the conference center called Brackenhurst and we finally saw our friend Kevin. Kevin is one of our absolute favorite people. He is a great leader, encouraging, witty, and super genuine person. I also saw a guy from college, which was super exciting. We even shared a meal later in the week and met each other’s families. Saw where we were going to minister and got to our rooms. Tried staying up but fell asleep and woke wide awake at 3:20 am.
Jan 2nd We woke up to MONKEYS outside our room!!! Had breakfast as a team the fresh pineapple was great! After breakfast we had orientation and then we went to set up our room and practiced the evening service while Morgan volunteered for early childcare. We had a good practice and met our two extra helpers J and J. Lunch was another win! After lunch, went over my service notes and took a nap.
Our first service was awesome! The kids had lots of energy and were so fun! Such a great group of elementary kids with big hearts and high energy. The team did a great job! Super proud of C & G. God is good! We got through all our media and then lost power, regained it, and lost it again. Taught on the Bible is our guide. At dinner we lost power again, at dinner we also debriefed our first service. After dinner the team played a game and Morgan won. After losing to Morgan we called it a night.
Jan 3rd This was the first full day with our long 5-hour morning service. It was so fun and the team loved every minute! G played songs on his ukelele and it was a big hit! Games and songs also landed well with the kids. We packed up and headed to lunch After lunch we came back to set up slides and get ready for evening service. I opened my Mac and the screen had become cracked. 🙁Tried a few workarounds that didn’t work. Fortunately, J also brought her Mac and was kind enough to let us use her computer. Service started late but it all worked out. The team worked hard to ensure the kids had a good time. We had a really sweet moment of worship that night.
Jan 4th Woke up around 3:20 am wide awake even though I didn’t nap and pushed through yesterday. Bummer about my Mac but I know it is going to be a good day and so thankful for J’s kindness. The day was good but had interesting moments. Morning chapel was a blast. More kids are starting to open up and share in small groups.
We had lunch with J and J which was fantastic! We got to hear all about their lives and being raised by missionaries. J is from NEBRASKA! She feels called to Cairo. J’s parents are in Hungary, and she hopes to serve with them after college. After lunch, we had some tech issues and while we were back in our rooms, young boys decided to play soccer inside our meeting space and broke a light.
Went outside to hide for a game and just casually walked past some monkeys. When we got back the monkeys were on the roof and around our building. We did not lose power tonight and had another sweet moment of worship with the elementary group.
Jan 5th Today was our free day in Kenya. We drove out to the Giraffe Center which I renamed Giraffe Garden because it alliterates. We had an awesome time feeding giraffes.
G and I did a giraffe puzzle that turned out a bit trickier than we assumed. We challenged Morgan and C to do the puzzle and our time was faster. Before leaving G and I found a path from the restroom that got us closer to the enclosure and we also got to see warthogs.
After giraffes, we headed to a bartering market that travels. On this day it was on the third level of a parking garage at a really neat mall. Honestly, I am not a fan of bartering and trying to make a deal. I got a bad deal on keychains but a good deal on a stone bowl. I prefer gift shops where the price posted is the price you pay. Morgan, C, and G enjoyed their time and C made many new friends.
We returned to the conference center, I grabbed a chocolate milkshake, skipped the improv show, and went on vocal rest. Tomorrow we are back to two services a day, the first one being 5 hours. All in all, it was an awesome day!
Jan 6th FIELD TRIP DAY!! Due to the field trip, we had a shorter morning service. We went to a trampoline park called Ozone. The kids and team had such a blast and I only got slightly injured. After jumping we went down to the food court for pizza and the leaders got calzones. After lunch, we had to take the kids for dessert, ice cream whoop, whoop! While getting ice cream G and I jumped into a gift shop and got matching shirts. We got back and Morgan and G rested, I freshened up after jumping and working on tech issues. Where was C? The kids unloaded off the bus and C went to play tag with them.
Had to maneuver some leader communication for the upcoming Sunday back home which was interesting with the time difference, Kenya is 10 hours ahead of Washington.
Our evening service went well, the room got warm. We moved the games and the message outside. Had dinner with my friend for college, it was a wonderful time of fellowship. After dinner, we set up for the next morning's service. Then we played games with another American, K who was there helping serve the littles. I also got to connect with one missionary. We had some rich conversation. He was both funny and heartfelt.
Jan 7th Our last full day. Still having some tech issues but breakfast was once again amazing! We had to make some quick changes, but God is good, and the morning service came all together. Part of the morning service was creating a list of all the games and songs we introduced throughout the week and letting the kids plan the final evening service.
C led an object lesson on trust with a blindfold and did a great job. C & J’s small group taught the main lesson and crushed it! So proud!
Our lunch was good, we ate with other workers and heard from the main leader. After lunch, the boys and I set up and practiced for the evening, had even more tech issues. Just felt like we were being fought against going into the last service. I invented the boys to take a break from work and went to the cafe for a breather, where we played more games with K during some free time. A little later I went back solo to finish working on the media for last night. Some songs that the kids chose that we sang all week, were now not working. 3 songs we didn’t have lyrics videos, but we wanted the children to still have their songs. We just played them through a speaker, and it ushered in a sweet and genuine time of prayer and worship. We ended up worshiping for so long, that the kids just wanted more. Which was such an incredible atmosphere to be in that night. Some of the videos we planned to use that, I tested earlier were now no longer working. C & J gave testimonies which were great and really encouraging. C and G both did really well on their solo teaching times. So proud of them and loved having them join us.
After service, we had an outside banquet with string lights and more than one bonfire. It was awesome! Morgan and I got to eat with PB. When the banquet concluded we went to clean our ministry space and began to pack up. Tomorrow, we leave for our safari experience.
Jan 8th We grabbed a quick small breakfast and left the conference center to start our 5-hour trip to Sweet Waters Camp. We stopped about halfway at a roadside souvenir shop. Some really cool stuff but did not get anything.
Once we made it to the camp we saw impalas, many birds, and a ton of baboons. We had an all-you-can-eat buffet for lunch and then went to our tents.
When they told us our tents were luxury, they were not kidding. Big comfy bed, electricity, plumbing with shower and toilet and the water gets nice and hot. Our tent entrance faced a big watering hole where we saw some warthogs. Got settled and then spent time in prayer thanking God for His creation, provision, and goodness.
About 40 minutes after lunch, we loaded up in our safari vehicles and we got to be in the same van as Kevin. We also made new friends S, S,C. It was such a fun van to be in for our game drive.
The game drive was incredible! Lots of impalas, cape buffalos, gazelles, and zebras. We saw a mom elephant with her young child and teenager eating and drinking at a small stream. They walked really close to our van.
We then stopped at a chimpanzee sanctuary and saw 3 chimps 1 holding a baby. We headed back out a found a hyena den and the pack protecting the den, so cool! Then all of a sudden, the vans started to radio each other, we picked up speed and caught up with the other vans. Everyone stopped to observe a small pride of lions. 2 males and 3 females, we parked and stayed for a while. It was awesome!! They were just big sleepy cats.
We headed back for dinner and saw more hyenas and zebras. Hyenas are weird animals but in a cool way. We were 20 minutes late to dinner because we were watching some buffalo at the watering hole outside our tent. As we were eating dinner, Morgan looked out the window and spotted a rhino and her baby at the watering hole. We are not allowed to use flash photography and because of the darkness at night, our pictures did not turn out great but still so cool to see. We got back to our dinner and had some wonderful conversations with new friends.
As we made our way back to the tent, we stopped and watched Mama and baby rhino. While watching them a mama elephant and calf also arrived at the watering hole. It was truly an amazing experience.
Jan 9th Our morning started early at 6:30 am for a morning game drive and it was chilly. We got to see some giraffes pretty soon after the drive began, which was really cool! Some were a bunch of the same animals as the day before and a few different birds. Then we saw rhinos! White and black rhinos. The white rhino had a calf. They have over 160 rhinos spread out across SweetWater Camp and protected. We were able to see 10 during our trip.
We stopped and took pictures at the equator, which was so awesome! Afterward, we headed to the Great Northern Black Male Rhino enclosure. Which was incredible! I got to feed, pet Baraca, and touch his horn! Poor guy lost an eye to an infection.
After Rhinos we got back on the road for the airport, stopping for lunch at the Trout Tree. It is a restaurant built in and on a tree which was really cool. The trunk of the trees runs through the middle of the bar and seating areas. At the base of the tree is a trout hatchery. While there we walked around and got to see Colobus monkeys which pretty cool and little creatures were called highrats.
After lunch, we finished our trip to the airport. Got to the airport around 8 p.m. our flight was at 1:30 a.m. Had to sit in the ticket area for a while before they opened and would allow us into the terminal. Got checked in and still had to wait for that 1:30 time stamp so we began to sleep in shifts. Got woken up twice to move to different gates. We had to ride a bus out onto the tarmac to board our plane.
Jan 10th Slept pretty well on the flight to Doha which was a bit of a bummer because the Airbus was so nice and had new movie options, but I could not stay awake. Landed in Doha, had to go through transfer security again, and then had to go through security at our gate. It was a good flight, mostly watching movies I had already seen so I could sleep on and off. The chicken meal that was served was so good and Qatar Airways has great apple juice! However, the beef meal that was served later came back and messed with my stomach.
We landed in Seattle and had to reclaim our luggage which took a while. Our luggage ended up on a different belt with G’s bag but C’s bag was on the belt labeled Doha. With all our luggage we had to go through passport control which was not a quick process. Once through we found our gate and had to ride two trains to make it and with all the time wasted, we missed our flight. I don’t complain much but Seattle Airport is very unorganized.
We were flying Alaska from Seattle to Spokane, so we went to the Alaska customer service desk. They could not rebook us because Qatar Airways was still servicing our ticket through Alaska. We had to leave the airport to speak with the ticket counter of Qatar Airways. They finally got us booked all together on a different Alaska flight leaving in 5 hours. We can drive to Spokane in 5 and really thought about renting a car. We decided to just wait it out since our luggage had already been processed. We finally made it home! C’s family met him a baggage claim. G’s mom was kind enough to pick all of us up and drop Morgan and me home.
Morgan and I were blessed by this experience! We saw God move in the lives of kids and leaders. We made new friends and built connections. We spent time with Kevin and bonded with G & C. We had moments that stretched us and developed our leadership skills. We still think of this trip and are so thankful for the opportunity!
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