Kenya: Chapter 2 'Beautiful Things'

Maybe after reading chapter 1, you’re a little scared to continue. Don’t worry - this is the fun chapter. GOD IS ~SO~ BEAUTIFUL. There were so many moments when his greatness was so extensive that I just had to stop what I was doing and take it in. We went on a safari the first Saturday that we were there. We woke up and left at 5:30 as we ate our pre prepared sack breakfast in the safari vehicle. It was going to be a rainy day. The safari was incredible - I was with Lauren, Jarrod, Troy, Katie, Kori, and Rob and I could not stop smiling/laughing the whole 3 hours. My cheeks ached by the time we drove out of the gates. Despite the sprinkles, we saw zebras, giraffes, hippos, a ton of different bird species, ostriches, antelope, wildebeest, and a lion. Plus there were a ton of other animals/creatures that we saw the entirety of the trip whether that be on the side of the road or right outside the flats where we were staying: warthogs, baboons, monkeys, dogs, cats (there was a mom, dad and a litter of kittens at the cafeteria where we ate), donkeys, goats, sheep, horses, more birds (very annoying birds), lizards, and slugs. If you’re reading this right now, you should ask me about Steve the slug - it’s a very entertaining story that I might add into the conclusion of this series. My favorite animal is a deer so I was ecstatic that the antelope were the most frequently seen on the safari. However, the baby elephants we visited at the orphanage after the safari stole the show. Each elephant lost its mother and is being cared for until they are old enough to be readmitted into the wild. As we finished watching the first group get fed, it started to POUR. Imagine the hardest rain you’ve ever experienced + almost all of us had left our rain jackets at the flats or in the vans + there was no ledge or roof we could hide under + mass confusion on where to go = we were drenched. When we finally made it back to the van, there was not a dry spot on our bodies. I squeezed a cup full of water out of my skirt. It was one of the greatest moments of the trip for me. One of the items on my bucket list is to be able to dance in the pouring rain … to be able to take a less than pleasurable situation and find pure joy. The morning and early afternoon on the safari and in the elephant orphanage had brought a joy that extended past temporary happiness.

May 22 the group was in charge of coming up with some games for us all (TNU, SNU, ANU) to play. There was a soccer pitch right outside the university so we all headed out to kick the ball around. The sunset was phenomenal. We were in the middle of the game and I knew I just had to stop to take a picture (of course the other team scored while I was gone, but oh well). There were several other days where the sunsets just blew me away - the last Monday of the trip as we made our way back to Nairobi from the rural countryside, our first Sunday as we sat looking out on a valley from the Maasai lodge we were eating, and the night Katie and I went out to the front of the school to take pictures of the magnificent sunset.

The final beautiful thing I will write about is the sunrise. May 23 we had decided that we would wake up and see the sunrise. Lauren came in to wake up Tally and I but we were too tired and told her we were staying in so she went back to sleep. After a few minutes, I realized that I wasn’t going to be able to go back to sleep and thinking that Lauren had headed up with Ian, Victoria, and Mikayla, I walked out to the soccer pitch by myself. Ian, Victoria, Mikayla, and I watched the most beautiful sunrise I had ever seen. I’ve always been more of a sunset girl because (quite frankly) they’re prettier. It was the reason I had been so hesitant to wake up that morning - I would rather sleep than see a subpar sunrise that I could see every day in America. I am now convinced that Africa has prettier sunrises than we do because watching the sun illuminate the clouds and finally burst through the horizon was breathtaking (the sun looks bigger over there, just FYI). The next day we had a bigger group come out with us. There were more clouds so the sunrise wasn’t as cool but even in the subtle beauty of day 2 I sat in awe of the awesome power of our God.

I feel like people often go to Africa and bring back the pictures of the starving children - we all know that those are the pictures that stir hearts and open wallets. When I left for this trip I knew that pictures of the poverty and devastation was not what I wanted to bring back. In case you haven’t caught on, this blog will not focus on the visible debris because Kenya is so much more than what the media has portrayed it to be. ‘You make beautiful things out of the dust’ (Beautiful Things, Gungor). There is LIFE in Kenya - there are so many theologians saying that we should be looking to Africa in the next 10 years for the revival that the church needs. After this trip, I am also convinced that the spark that will light the world and our hearts on fire is about to be ignited in the heart of Africa. I want to demonstrate this hope for the future in some of people I tell you about in the next few chapters. Start listening.