Out of Canada, Into Kenya - Shawn's Journal

Kwaheri (Goodbye) Kenya, Hopefully

It’s hard to believe that in 3 short hours we’ll be leaving for the airport, hoping to get on the standby list so we can get to London in the morning in time to catch our flight into Paris. We’re really looking forward to our time in France and even more so getting home and getting to see our friends and family that we’ve missed so much.

Leaving Kenya isn’t easy, though. We’ve been told that we’ll go through the second phase of culture shock after we return home - we’ll be missing Kenya as much as we missed home. Indeed, Kenya has become our home these last several months. We’ve become accustomed to potholes and trash everywhere. Burning garbage no longer stinks…well almost. It’s no longer strange to see thousands of people walking everywhere or street kids sniffing glue (though it does still break our hearts). Using bottled water to brush our teeth is normal, and we’ve learned to not drink water while in the shower. Sleeping under a mosquito net is no longer romantic. We’ve been dewormed and are almost finished with the medicine that kills any amoeba in our systems. We’re almost packed, yet we’re not quite ready to finish packing. We’ll wait until 4:30, 15 minutes before we leave for the airport, once we’ve finished bidding Kenya farewell, hopefully. Kenya we’ll miss you.

To everyone we’ve visited while here, thank you. We pray that we were as much of a blessing to you as you were to us. We have learned and seen so much. We will be sharing the incredible work that you’re involved in with friends and family back home. Keep up the good work. We’ll be praying for you.

To our faithful readers and supporters, many of whom we don’t even know, thank you. You’re from the U.S., Canada, Kenya, Russia, China, Belarus, Belgium, France, UK, Trinidad and Tobago, and Romania. You’ve followed us on this journey, you’ve supported us financially, and you’ve prayed for us. Thank you. We can’t wait to share more of our stories and photos with you in the days and even years to come. This trip has been an amazing experience and we pray that we’ll never forget what we have seen. (The 6300 photos may help with that.)

Continue praying for us, as we need to get on the flight tonight (as standby passengers) and get to France tomorrow morning (Saturday) safely. Once there, besides looking forward to seeing a developed country and Danielle speaking French, we are looking forward to spending lots of time thinking back on the trip, reading what we’ve written, assimilating all that we’ve seen and done and preparing to return home. It hasn’t been easy living in a third-world country for two months, traveling from one side to the other. Many things have broken our hearts, but many other things have encouraged us. It has been such an interesting trip. You can look forward to more stories and photos that we’ll continue to post here during the next few weeks.

Once again, to all, thank you. To Kenya and the people of Kenya, thank you for welcoming us with warm hearts and open homes. Goodbye for now.

Posted by slvrfrg at August 6, 2004 01:56 PM