Habari jioni!
The most important thing that we have done in the last week was leading worship and helping at a vacation bible school with 200 to 300 kids. This was a learning experience as we had to wing it very often and be prepared for anything. Fiedler was mostly on guitar, while Yockey and Jonathan switched between singing, dancing, and drumming. Yockey also got the chance to sing as a puppet named Mzungu Steve ever day! The theme was “I am blessed” to remind the kids from the slums that despite any circumstances, they are made in the image of God and have a purpose.
During our weeknights we spent a lot of time at our friend Gideon’s house. Our friend Kaylie (who has been mentioned in previous posts) left for Maryland last Thursday, so we had dinner and had a goodbye celebration at Gideon’s. On Friday we went there again for a surprise birthday party for Gideon, which turned out to not be much of a surprise. We spent the night with some cool people eating cake and playing games. Our good friend, Shem, also recorded interviews from a bunch of people about what Gideon meant to them and we watched that as a group. Gideon has been a mentor to us and has really helped us process our experience due to his unique ability to bridge the gap between a Kenyan and an American perspective while creating a comfortable home base. He will also be joining us on Safari this week, which is exciting because he is full of wisdom and insight that will be helpful with the debriefing process.
On Saturday we visited the Rafiki team at their orphanage, though Fiedler was unable to join us because he was feeling sick (though is now better). We were surprised to see children who were blessed with experiences that seemed foreign to Kenya, especially compared to some of the hardships we have witnessed in Kibera. It was a great opportunity to catch up with the Rafiki team and play with a bunch of cool kids with better English than most people we have met in Kenya.
In a mere seven days we will be on a plane headed towards Seattle. Until then we have packing, souvenir shopping, and a safari! As we have started saying goodbye to people and places, we realize that Kenya will be missed, though we are all very eager to be home again at this point. We plan on posting one more blog right before we leave, so keep posted!
Badai!
Puppet show during VBS