We're back!

A huge THANK YOU to everyone for all of your love, prayers, and support. We couldn't have done it without you! Our team is home safe and sound with an amazing experience to reflect on and many stories to tell all of you. We want to share our experiences with you, so please ask us! Now back to the fight against jet lag...

more pictures

Time for bed. Here are pictures. Enjoy.

Week Two

After our very full weekend, we started another week of work on the OAI property. Monday morning about a third of our team stayed behind at our hotel due to a stomach bug that left them wiped out (they've all recovered well and quickly, for the most part). That left us down quite a few people. Still, we continued to move soil by the wheelbarrow load to what will soon be the yard area on which the children in the village can play. Our total loads for that day were about 700, even with six people missing from the team!
That evening we got a special treat- authentic Indian food. We all ate our fill of a special bread called "nam" (pronounced nom), which came with cheese and garlic. We also enjoyed the colorful and flavorful main dishes, which included fish, chicken, and mutton. Overall, it was an extremely tasty experience! Later that evening we had a great worship session to end our day well.
Tuesday and Wednesday were more of the same, except we had our whole team back, so things moved along much more quickly.
Yesterday evening we enjoyed a traditional Kenyan meal, supplied by our gracious hosts at The Noble (our hotel). We tried many dishes, including pumpkin leaves, caro root, brown ugali, chipati, mashed banana (the consistency of mashed potatoes), roasted goat, and many different varieties of vegetables and potatoes. It was a very filling meal!
This morning we will be starting our day out with the final segment of scripture study from the book of James, which we all look forward to. After that, we will head to the Open Arms property one more time for a final day of work and playing with the OAI children. Pray for us as we transition out of our time here in Kenya, that we would be able to process all that has happened. Thanks for staying faithful to us!

-noelle

The weekend

We spent Saturday at the Rondo Retreat Center in the Kakamega Rainforest. It’s supposedly a 2-hour drive from where we are staying in Eldoret, but on a road with probably the most potholes in the entire world, it took a good 4 hours to get there. Let me tell you, we were so excited to get out of that bus, especially those who were car sick (or should I say bus sick).

Once we got there, we divided into two groups and headed into the rainforest with our guides. We hiked through beautiful trees and plants (our guide said there are 280 different types of plants in that rainforest), spotting monkeys along the way. After about an hour, the hike started going up the side of the mountain, and we climbed up to the entrance of a bat cave. In the pitch dark, we crept our way through the cave, holding onto each other for support, ducking when the ceiling got low, and we came to a small opening at the end. Our guide showed us a few bats with his flashlight, but it was still pretty dark, so we decided to take pictures and use our flash as a source of light. We had a blast squishing together in that little opening, blinding each other with our cameras, and spotting bats hanging on the walls or flying over our heads.

After the bat cave, the groups continued up the side of the mountain to reach the top, an elevation of about 7000 feet. There were 360 degree views of the rainforest – it was breathtaking, and the pictures don’t do it justice. After our hike, we returned to the Retreat Center for lunch, then headed back on the bus for another long, bumpy drive. It was an adventurous and relaxing day for the group, especially after working so hard on the property.

We spent Sunday at the Open Arms Village with the families who live there, sharing a church service with them, partaking in a traditional Kenyan goat roast, and exploring the beautiful property. Jonathan shared a message at the church service and the children (affectionately called the Open Arms Choir) sang songs for us. We then visited the nearby school and we played soccer (football in Kenya) and volleyball with the Open Arms childen and the school children. All of the children got a candy cane after the games as a trophy. Then we returned to the Village and shared a traditional goat roast with the families at the Village and the local tribal leaders. After, we had some free time to wander the property and see the gorgeous views around the valley. It was a wonderfully relaxing day with great time to build relationship with the families at the Village.

Unfortunately, this morning, about half of our team woke up with some sort of stomach bug. Please pray for the health of our team, for quick healing and strength to be able to work today.

-Camille

This morning started off with a trip to the convenience store to purchase all of the things that we may have forgotten or run out of (including aloe-everyone is at least a little bit more pink from the sun than they were when we started last week). Almost everyone also purchased a soda or two for twenty shillings apiece (about 30 cents). After, we continued the job we started yesterday on the property, including moving large piles of dirt and topsoil to create an area where the children can play. The dirt here is a strong red color, and by the end of the day we were all nice and "tan" from all the dust sticking to our sunscreen.
It is the end of the day here, and we are all exhausted and sore from two long days of work. We are looking forward to the welcomed break of the weekend. Saturday, that is, tomorrow, we will be taking a two hour drive to a resort where we can opt to either go for a hike in a rainforest or a bat cave. Then on Sunday we will be at the Open Arms Village for a traditional Kenyan goat roast (more on that later...), which we are all excited about. We'll post more pictures from the last couple of days tomorrow!
-noelle

Pictures from Kambi Teso

Here are some pictures from our first two days when we were at Kambi Teso, before we started working at the Open Arms village. Katie tried to post these with her blog, but technology wasn't cooperating. So here are the pictures of Kambi Teso.

The Village

It's almost time for bed, and everyone is thoroughly exhausted. Half of the team members could not keep their eyes open during dinner. While that sounds a bit sad, we were all content and feeling good about the work we accomplished. Today was the first day we worked on the property at the Open Arms village. We were all eager to get to work and make a dent in the list of things to do while we are here.

Today's agenda involved moving massive piles of dirt, digging through layers of rock and clay, and leveling the ground around the children's homes. Speaking of the children, today was also the first day that we got to meet all of them. We were so excited to see them, and they were just as excited to see us. We played games, sang songs, and danced in the middle of a scenic Kenyan paradise. We will make sure to write some more detailed blogs about the kids and our work on the property. Right now, however, I'm going to go to bed. Goodnight.



-Jonathan