Kenya, You Were Good To Us! It Was A Hard Good-Bye!

      I can't believe we're back! After an emotional, exciting, adventurous, fun, and successful trip, the Kenya Team has arrived back to Utah all safe and sound. It was such a hard goodbye as your journey came to an end, but we accomplished and each learned so much and came back new people because of our amazing experience.

Here is a day by day rundown of our journey:

Day 1

7/16/12:

      After A long 2 days of traveling, we arrived in Kajuki, Kenya. As our buses pulled into the St. Peters compound, all we could hear was the angel voices of all the kids! It was the most amazing singing i've ever heard. It was such an overwhelming feeling coming into such a different environment, but yet being welcoming by such loving people. The moment we stepped foot out of the buses the kids just swormed around us. I think everyone can agree with me when I say that I felt like the most famous celebrity to ever walk this planet! All of the kids just touched you and held on to you and shook your hand asking for your name, how old you were, and how you were doing. They were so excited for us to be there, it was just an incredible welcoming.      

      It was pretty late and we were all exhausted from being stuck in planes all day, so we got settled in our dorms, put the mosquito nets up, and went right to bed.

Day 2

7/17/12:

      Today was a long day full of pure African entertainment! We first woke up and some of us had gone to mass, while the others slept in until breakfast. Everyday for breakfast we had a choice of corn flakes, milk, boiled eggs, bread, and jelly.

       Today was opening ceremonies, where the St. Peters school and village people all came together to dance and sing for us! They sang and danced for about 3 hours straight! By the end of the ceremony, my cheeks were sore from smiling and laughing so much, it was wonderful. We then had lunch prepared for us. Everyday for lunch we had the choice of rice, beans or potatoes. Later on that day Father Franklin took us to a waterfall near by, then we split up into groups and they gave us a tour around the compound. Then it was dinner time, which was basically the same as lunch. The food was very good, we just all got sick of it by the end of the trip because we were eating the same thing everyday! 

Day 3 - Day 12

18th - 27th:

      From this day and on, for the most part, we had the same schedule set everyday. We would ate breakfast, split into our project groups and work for a few hours, come back and eat lunch, then go back out and work for a couple more hours, then we had some time to hang out with the kids or plan for the next day, then we got ready for dinner and had a meeting each night afterwards. 

      Here is the list of projects each committee was in charge of while in Kajuki:

Construction

• Built tables and chairs at St. Peters Primary. 
• Built the roof at Sacred Heart Baby School. They will finish the walls and floor after we leave.
• Layed the rough layer of cement in St. Peters dining hall. 
• Installed 5 solar panels, 3 batteries, and the lighting at Ntumbara Secondary School. 
• Dug trenches to install a water system at Nutumbara Secondara School. They will finish digging the trenches to lay the piping. 

Micro-finance

• One Sunday, we were divided into 8 groups to go to church. Afterwards, each group visited 5 homes. At each home visit we will give one cock and one hen to each family. The microfinance committee went to the Kathwana market to buy the chickens. 
• Met with the leadership of the Catholic Women Association namely Rosemary, Elizabeth, Mrs. Tom, and Veronika to discuss their position as the governing board and the microfinance program in Kajuki. The committee decided to purchase all of the paper materials and budget books for the already established micro finance program in Kajuki. 
• Teach the Rotary Community Core computer classes in the evening.

Education 

We taught at the following Primary schools:

• St. Peters Primary 
• Kajuki Primary
• Makanyanga Primary
• Mandugo

We taught at the following Secondary schools: 

• Kajuki Secondary 
• Ntumbara Secondary 
• Makanyanga Secondary 

We taught at the following Baby schools: 

• Kathwana 
• Sacred Heart

Medical

• Medical clinic on July 21st (wound care, worms, fever, etc).
• Visit special needs school in Meru town.
• Tour the Kajuki dispenserary and talk with management.
• Home visits to six individual with physical handicaps located in Kajuki, Ntumbara, and Kathwana. 
• Create a school dispensary with basic medicine and wound care.

Cultural

• Paint mural at St. Peters and Kajuki.
• Fun Fair
• Opening and closing ceremonies
• Soccer game with Kajuki Secondary and Nutumbara Secondary
• Cultural panel/game with Kajuki Secondary
• Lessons of Kimeru and Kiswahili with Kajuki Secondary
• Powerpoint of America Life

Day 13 - Day 14

28th - 29th:

      This morning we had packed up and left Kajuki, which was a very emotional goodbye for all of us, and headed off to Sweetwaters Safari. We arrived at Sweetwaters in the evening where a dinner buffet was all prepared for us! Now this was such a shock! This was an extremely nice resort which we were not expecting or ready for. After being in Kajuki for the past 13 days, this was a huge shock to all of us! The food was completely different, the environment was different, everything was different! We then got ready for the Safari!! This was amazing. We got lucky to see what we saw! We saw zebras, impalas, chimpanzees, birds, warthogs, a rhino, elephants, and best and luckiest of all we saw LIONS! The Safari that night lasted for about 3 hours. We then woke up the next morning and went an another game run when we saw more lions and this time we saw tons of giraffes, but this lucky time we saw a cheetah which is extremely rare to see! They are hard to find because they don't run around in packs like all of the other animals. They go on their own. So that was just awesome! We got lucky on our game runs, but it was an experience of a lifetime. We then left that morning after the last game run and went to Nairobi. We arrived to Nairobi Sunday evening. Later on that night we ate at a place called Carnivores. Carnivores is known for all of their meat. We ate beef, chicken, chicken wings, crocodile, ostrich, ox testicles, lamb, pork and ribs. It was all interesting. But it was good! It was a lot of fun. We stayed the night in Nairobi. 

Day 15

7/30/12:

      Well it's Monday morning, which means we head home this morning! This whole journey was just amazing. We got to see both sides of the spectrum. We saw the poorest of the poor in Kajuki, we saw a rain forrest with beautiful waterfalls, then we got to go on an amazing safari which just summed up the whole trip. It felt to good to serve these people. Just knowing that we did so much to them to help get things started was enough for me. These people are amazing. They have such a light and spirit about them that just makes everyone so happy. I just still can't believe to this day that they never complain for what they have or don't have, they just live day by day. We all learned so much from this experience and will never forget this amazing journey! 

      Thank you Youthlic for providing this amazing opportunity to us. A HUGE shout out to Kevin and Scott and all of our mentors who made this A journey of a lifetime! They all put so much work into making this the best experience for each and every one of us. THANK YOU!!! WE LOVE YOU!!