what. a. week.

Hello blog fans!

Wow. The Kenya Project made history over the past few weeks: we welcomed 31 youths and adults to the guest house from Mt. Pisgah and 4 friends from Uganda on June 18th. That is 37 people under our roof! Luckily, the master carpentry of Wambugu held strong through clutch time. His double/single bunk beds may be our best investment yet. Fighting through a few minor cases of altitude sickness and one night without electricity, we did it! I am exhausted, hence my two week blog hiatus.

It was a pleasure to have this team despite its size—such an incredibly passionate group of teens. It is encouraging to see the sincere interest they expressed in pursuing change here at Mountain Park and overall lessening the burdens of others, especially of the children. For those of you who have visited Mountain Park before, you will not recognize it when you come back! This team put in serious work. The dining hall has been repainted in its entirety. Cubbies and hanging rods were installed in the children’s home so that our orphans no longer have to tie grocery sacks to their end bunks holding their personal belongings and clothes. Our adult leaders assisted the construction crew in building the new addition to the guest house—extra shower stalls and toilets. Every afternoon Mountain Park students and other village children were loved and LOVED and loved by our youths on the playground. Kady even endured being covered from neck to toes in vomit after a bit too much swinging with a 4-year-old…and will soon be tiny Catherine Mugure Thuo’s new sponsor. Though I have never had the urge to attempt carrying a 20-liter drum of water on my forehead, I nearly lost two teens on the team’s first day in Nakuru as they ventured off down the road helping locals lug home their water supply. Bibian hosted the team at Hutch’s House where each of the 15 orphans were given a new basket of clothes before we learned the intimate and tragic details of their backgrounds…and I started crying {again} trying to share about making their beds in March. Over 400 families were distributed food sacks and all of our school children received a new toothbrush. We have enough supply and laundry donations to last us several months and to serve countless families and future teams. Congratulations and thank you to Mt. Pisgah for their profound contributions to our projects and this community…

Personally, one of my highlights of the week was meeting Jamie and Sara Staley…and their visiting friends Stacy and Howie. Oddly enough, my aunt had shared considerably about the Staleys’ work with the International Justice Mission before and after my arrival in Kenya: I’ve been receiving their e-mail updates since April and I read a powerful book entitled Just Courage by IJM founder Gary Haugen before my departure. For those of you who do not know, the IJM is an organization of lawyers and volunteers that live overseas all over the world to combat bonded labor, slavery, human trafficking, illegal land seizure, etc. through the courts while simultaneously providing human services for their clients. Leaving their careers in the States, Jamie and Sarah committed to a one-year, unpaid internship in Kampala where they work the front and back ends of land seizure cases. Jamie is the front man: due to his background in ministry, he is the first point of contact for possible clients. He has trained to host legal education clinics deep in the villages of Uganda and to interview possible clients to determine if they meet the criteria set forth by the IJM for intake. Sara is the pivotal back end of the process: due to her background in social work, she cultivates partnerships with other organization to provide aftercare services.

This is not strictly a pitch for the IJM {although I do invite you to visit the Staleys’ personal blog site to learn more about their specific experiences}. Early in the week Mark threw the responsibility of devotions to the couple. They had approximately 10 minutes to prepare to speak, but it was their on-the-spot discussion that profoundly impacted me this week. Overall, this leg of my journey has had its share of ups and downs. The realities of trying to operate a non-profit in a developing country have been hitting hard. In response to those frustrations, I have frequently doubted my presence and successes here…and have resorted to the entirely unproductive what if. I am a planner at heart as so many of the older gentleman on the Pisgah team deduced very quickly: What if I had started law school this fall? What will I do if I return to the States earlier than planned? Where do you draw a line in the sand? Aren’t the women and children with whom I work worth all of the administrative hassles? Jamie and Sara began to share stories of the women and orphans they had met while working to restore justice to vulnerable Ugandans…and it was not all happy. There are days when 9 of 10 prospective widows who are threatened by powerful family members cannot be helped. And then this came out…

We should go until we are called to stay, not stay until we are called to go.

Tah-dah! Man, that is such a powerful statement and such a statement of inner peace. I am keeping that in mind for now as I continue my work here in Kenya.

I must also give a shout out to Stacy and Howie—such a fabulous addition to our team! Howie and Stacy joined Sara and Jamie in Uganda primarily to shoot and to document the work of the IJM…and decided to tag along to visit us as well. Stacy is a nurse in Atlanta at Children’s and will hopefully be returning to Kenya in the fall with our med team. Howie is a photography nerd like me and we shared many deep conversations over crop censor lenses and Nikon speedlights. I am in debt to him for his pointers (which will hopefully be exhibited in new photos of the women’s goods soon) and for his work with the women themselves. We will soon be featuring each one of our ladies, one per week, on their blog site.

I will sign off here. This is getting a bit lengthy, but please stay tuned for a few more stories soon and another update on the successes of Geneva’s Wonderful Women. July will be a very busy month here. I am continuing to prep for my Kilimanjaro climb in early August {officially booked—no turning back now!} and am hoping to head for a brief vacation to Kampala mid month. The Kenya Project will be beginning its annual audit of student records next Monday too—new photos, bios, and letters are on the way!

Love to you from this {still} dusty place…

tnick