First day on the ground

We made it safely to Nairobi, arriving Monday night around 9:00 local time (7 hours ahead of US Eastern time). We got through customs with minimal bribes paid and were picked up by Bill and Chat Coble as well as our friends and drivers Rufus, Happy James, and Paul. We got to our hotel on the airport and hands, beach ball, fist bumps and anything that would make them laugh and smile. And we all did plenty of that! After about an hour of these activities, everyone was settled into groups with their teachers so we could teach a Bible lesson and do a bead bracelet craft object lesson with them. We helped to serve the hot lunch meal before bidding them goodbye and heading back to our vans and off to lunch ourselves.

The stark contrast in circumstances we observe creates all sorts of internal struggles every time we go to Deep Sea (my fourth time), and it’s something you can’t easily resolve internally.




When we left Deep Sea, we fought the Nairobi traffic (Kenya’s version of Los Angeles!) We made one quick stop at a friend’s shop to support him by buying his beautifully made natural Christmas decorations and crafts and headed north on the A104 up the Rift Valley for the 3+ hour ride to Nakuru, arriving around 7:15. We again got room assignments, had dinner in the dining room and had a team meeting to help us “unpack” what we had experienced during the Deep Sea visit. Everyone was wrestling with various feelings and emotions that this experience brings to the surface. The process of sorting those feelings out is something that takes a bit of time.

Tomorrow we do our first vision clinic out at Gituamba, so we spent time assembling our equipment and getting set up with a system of doing the screening exams and working with our patients. Tomorrow will be trial by fire! I hope to have pictures to post tomorrow night of some dramatic vision stories! Stay tuned!