A few trip favorites!

What's a trip to Kenya actually like?  Well it starts weeks before with figuring out how to maximize everyone's weight allowance.  The two main items we take are books, lots of books, and sanitary kits. This year I get 3-50 pound bags for an international flight.  That's a lot to push around!

I started out this marathon trip with a cough and cold.  Luckily I only had a cough and a hoarse voice for the whole 2 weeks but felt just fine.  The 1st flight from Salt Lake to Amsterdam was 10 hours and 5 minutes. The 4 hour layover there is perfect for relaxing a bit and enjoying some delicious food, then it is an 8 hour flight to Nairobi.  I was lucky to have really great seats on an exit row.  It is amazing how nice it is to have that extra leg room, even for short little me! In Nairobi we had to clear customs, take all our luggage across the parking lot to the domestic terminal and to catch a short 1 hour flight to Mombasa.  Needless to say bed at the hotel felt really, really good!

Lots of rain on this trip!  Traffic in Mombasa was crazy and the roads looked like rivers 

The rain meant that we saw lots of people out working in the fields trying to get crops planted now.  So often they are in drought conditions and if you are a subsistence farmer, that isn't good!  We stopped and asked permission to take photos of this young woman working in her field.  At first her husband said that she couldn't stop work but Kelvin, our driver, was pretty persuasive, so he finally agreed.

After I took a turn, the husband said that he'd like me to stay and work for 3 days.  I am pretty sure I'd be unable to move, if I did this for more than just a few minutes for the photo.  He told Kelvin that I looked like I knew what I was doing!  Ha Ha! 

We received skirts with matching turbans!  I didn't realize until later just how high my turban actually was 

I've been to Taru often enough now that I get to see old friends like Madame Roca, the mother of super reader James.  I met James on my first trip when he was a 5th grader who had read every book in the community library.  Now he's a secondary student on a full government sponsorship to one of the best schools in the country.  Readers are leaders! 

The Bahakwenu women have also become friends.  I enjoy seeing them on each trip.  They have hard lives yet they live with such joy!

Two of my favorite young women are Gloria Hope and Lydia Buyaki.  Gloria was sponsored by Kenya Keys and has become somewhat of a local celebrity as she fights for girl's rights.  She recently went to Cairo for a Nassar Leadership conference.  Lydia is a university student, also sponsored by Kenya Keys.  Both of these young women exemplify the "We are the future leaders of Kenya" chant! 

I finally got to meet the mother of the student we are sponsoring at the University.  She is a single mom who was struggling to keep her son in secondary school when we decided to help him.  She is extremely grateful as his education will change her life and the life of her daughter.  Soon David will become the 1st college educated person in his family. 

And here is our new student Clement.  He has just started at the university.  Although his marks were high enough that he could have chosen engineering, he decided to be a secondary school teacher because he loves mentoring young boys and wants to make hard subjects like physics and chemistry easy and fun. 

I love taking pictures when I'm there and jumping pictures have become my calling card!  The kids love being in them and I love taking them!

Just a sweet mom and daughter team selling their vegetables in the Sunday market. 

 Kenyans are often very shy but once they start feeling comfortable, watch out!  The teenaged girls love posing.  These cute girls share my Duruma name of Mupa, which means, cheerful giver! 

Speaking of photography, this is the first time that students were using the government issued tablets to take photos.  These two girls are the school historians and they were documenting the opening ceremony. 

And cutest of all, this little angel caught my eye during the ceremony at her school.  I asked the teacher to get her and let me take some photos of her.  She attends one of the poorest of the schools  which is in an area where many children are both hungry and thirsty all day and early marriage is a common occurrence.  I feel sad thinking of how her life might be but also hopeful realizing the progress being made to educate girls.

A trip to Kenya is filled with the highest highs and the lowest lows!

And I love it!