Out of Canada, Into Kenya - Shawn's Journal

In Conclusion

I think we’ve been putting off our final journal entries because we haven’t wanted it all to end. We’ve now been back in North America for a little over a week and we’re slowly getting adjusted back to normal life after more than two months away from it.

Our trip was absolutely amazing and we’re so thankful for each and every one of the people who had a part in it. It is an experience that has changed our lives. We have learned and done so much in the last few months, it’s hard to believe that it is over.

There are still projects that we’re working on and I’m sure more will come, but here’s a few of the things that are still to be completed:

website for Felkners
brochure for Cheppema Children’s Home
organizing 7500 (!) photos
preparing a dvd containing a slideshow of the entire trip
designing case for above-mentioned dvd
Summary write-up for Worldvision
Re-working of this site: add more photos, finish archive pages, change structure to reflect a completed trip rather than one in-progress, etc.

Besides those projects, in a couple weeks we head over to Vancouver Island where we’ll be living and working at Camp Qwanoes until early next year. From there we’re still planning, but most likely we’ll be heading back to the Rockford (IL) area.

In the mean time, you can keep up with us on our personal website - www.ourlife.ca. (The domain may take a few to days to show up - it’s brand new)

August 31, 2004 | Comments (1)

A Tale of Two Cities

Going from Nairobi to Paris has been interesting. The other day we visited Versailles, an extravagant palace built by King Louis XIV. I think it is safe to say that there was as much gold in Versailles as there is dirt in Nairobi. The comparison between the two cities and even the two countries really is interesting, since Kenya and France are almost the exact same size. Nairobi and Paris are both capital cities. From the roads to the cars, the people to the buildings, there are very few similarities between the two cities and countries. Both are beautiful and have extremely varied terrain from one side to the other. Both countries have been inhabited for thousands of years but have developed completely differently. One is covered in gold, the other in dirt. It is easy to assume that the country covered in gold would be a better place to live, but judging from the people here, it seems that dirt makes people happier than gold.

August 20, 2004 | Comments (1)

Carcasonne

France has been so cool. The photo above is of Carcasonne, a medieval town that we visited the other day. Coming to France from Kenya has been quite interesting and a good easing back into our own culture.

It’s hard to believe that in one week we’ll be back in North America. We’ve been working on sorting through our past several months. Somehow we have to figure out the best way to communicate with our friends and family back home (and abroad) our experiences while in Kenya. Much of that sharing will be through photos, both in slideshows and here on our website. We’re also working on a few other ideas and concepts.

Tomorrow we head out to the Brittany coast (far northwest corner of France) and then to Paris where we return the rental car Monday morning and stay with friends in Paris until Saturday morning. We’re working on getting more photos uploaded to the photos section now that we have high speed access periodically. I’ll let you know when more are up. Keep praying that our bags will be located. They have found one of our four so far, we’ll catch up to that one in Vancouver.

August 15, 2004 | Comments (0)

Welcome to Chamonix

After a long day (nearly 30 hours) of travel, we arrived in Paris on Saturday evening. Unfortunately our 4 bags didn’t have the same fate as we did, as they’re stuck somewhere in hidden airport corners between London and Paris. As of yesterday (Tuesday) there was no word on their location. Slowly we’ve been buying essential items and clothing, as we can’t even pick up our bags until Monday if they do happen to get found.

Aside from that, we have had a great time so far. Danielle is doing great with her French (making up for my lack of). Today we’re heading toward the Atlantic coast of France where we’re told it’s cheaper to eat and sleep, since there aren’t so many tourists there this time of year.

We’re hoping to be able to post more often, but thus far there hasn’t been much opportunity for using the internet here. It may seem strange, but internet access was more readily available in Kenya than it has been in France. While we’re in Paris next week, however, we expect that to change.

Here’s a photo we took yesterday evening when we first arrived in Chamonix. As a side note, we highly, highly recommend the Hotel de L’Arve. We do not recommend the bed and breakfast called Beauregard, where we had originally planned on staying.

August 11, 2004 | Comments (2)

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.