Africa

So, as suspected, upon arrival in Kenya, I got my answer. I'm so glad to have come. My heart is re-engaging with Blood:Water, and I'm seeing a lot of personal work opportunities. Pen to paper, iPod shuffling. There's lots of healing sadness, joy, and hope to come through this.

Jena Lee, the director for Blood:Water has put together a great trip, and a great group of people to go. Some board members, Dan, and I. I should add that she gets married in 2 months. Amazing that she does all of this, and does it so well.

Here Jena and I eat some rabollo. Essentially, your mini-bananas. These would not fly in the US, as they are not super-sized.

Our first few days were spent living in the village where we've put in a clinic. Doing life out there is hard to describe. Terrifying. Pleasant. Mysterious. Beautiful. Here's the sunset from that first night.

I brought my birthday FIFA ball from the Dentes with me, and found great use there. It has a new home. This is Arestus. He played with me for quite a while, before it got too popular for us to continue in that manner. I should add that this is one of only a few times Arestus wore pants. According to his mother, he starts out with pants, but disagrees with them over time. Shirts, no problem.

Picture here are Peter, Suzi, Rose, Ezekiel...faithful staff at the clinic. Since opening last year they've seen over 6k people. Prevented many children from dying from malaria, just by simple blood test, diagnosis, and drugs. We hope to get HIV testing there, too. It was an out of body experience to work in the clinic. It's hard to describe, but I felt like I was watching myself from behind most of the time. Equal parts sad and joyful.

This is where I'll leave off. We visited some of the sites where we've put wells in, and heard from the women's groups that organized their communities. I've gotten to hug them, sing with them, dance with them, laugh with them, and even spoke in Luo to them. This picture is a familiar greeting as our van would drive up to the village. Much ceremony. Fully-embodied gladness.

The next picture is some orphan girls that danced for us. Their story of adoption by their community, the beauty of that dance...
It's really hard to relay this. I'm overwhelmed. The rain is falling in Rwanda now, and it's somehow a comfort in writing this. Joy, sadness, hope, beauty. Thank God for this.