Intense

(Apologies again for some of the low-quality pics, as several were ripped from our low-quality video as we tried to be as inconspicuous as possible taking pictures in some sensitive settings.)

We started this morning by visiting a local school. The school has about 600 students ranging from what would be about 1st through 8th grade in the US. We brought with us about a dozen soccer balls and some shoes and socks. When we arrived, there was a group of about 30 boys running around on a soccer field kicking around a plastic bag. As Joe pumped up a soccer ball, several other groups of students noticed the ball and started excitedly jumping up and down. Joe shanked, er, I mean punted the ball out to the boys on the soccer field and they just went crazy for it.

And things at the school only got better from there…

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A Typical Day for Us

Today was our first full day in Kenya. We woke up to a cool but sunny day. After breakfast and getting a tour from Molly of the grounds Joe, Molly, Jennifer, Victor, and I set off on our first adventure.

Victor is a Kenyan, about 30 years old, and lives with his wife in a small house on the same property as Joe and Molly. He’s an accountant by trade, but has been working more or less as the general contractor for the orphanage, hiring workers, ordering materials, making sure the work is done right. He also has a wonderful love for God and other people. He’s a month away from graduating from Bible college. He does a lot of other ministry work with the Bails and his real passion is for counseling people.

Samuel

Our first stop today was to help a boy named Samuel…
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A Tour of the Bails’

I mentioned before that I wanted to give you a tour of Joe and Molly’s place. I think one of the fears people have of going on a trip like this is fear of what their living conditions will be like. You go in with so many stereotypes and preconceived notions of what things will be like. Many of them simply are not accurate.

The equator runs right through Kenya. Equator = hot and humid, right? I’ve also seen plenty of pictures of the Serengeti – vast plains of flat grassland, so I figured that’s how most of Kenya would be. But that’s not accurate at all. Nakuru is at an elevation of about 7,000 feet above sea level. That’s higher than the Mile High city of Denver.

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We Made it!

Our trip from Tampa to Nakuru couldn’t have been better.

Our first flight left Tampa at 3:30 PM Saturday and arrived in Detroit at 6:15. We had just a hour layover in Detroit, so by the time we found the gate for our next flight (which they had moved without notice) most people had already boarded. The flight from Detroit to Amsterdam was about 7 hours. It arrived in Amsterdam at 9 AM their time, which was 3 AM to us. Again we had only about an hour layover in Amsterdam before our flight for Nairobi took off. But everything went smoothly and we made it through customs/check in just before they started boarding.

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Africa Update

Made it to Amsterdam. So far, so good...