RUNNING ON EMPTY - no sleep!

APRIL 2013 blog 9th trip to Kenya with Laura Danbrea, Sue Huerta, and Carrie

It was hard to leave this time with relationship problems with Brooklyn and Josie.  It is also hard because I was just gone last Wednesday through Sunday on a trip with Brooklyn to San Diego for choir.

4/19/13 - Friday

Chris and our friend, Darrell helped us to airport. That was the most "exciting" time of the travel. We hit very bad traffic at airport waiting in line for one hour or more with cops coming through the crazy traffic. It was so bad that a man started walking down freeway in the inside emergency lane with his suitcase rolling behind him.  It we didn't have 11 suitcases I would have loved to do that as well.


Some of the streets up to that point were flooded in Chicago. It was right around 7 pm when we arrived in that area. It was after 8 when we got up to the international terminal parking area to head in.  It was raining, hailing, snowing on April 19. Our luggage was outside in the back of Chris' truck getting wet the whole way just about.

We made it in plenty of time for the flight.  Luggage went well.  We had no problems with any overweight Turkish Airlines was very generous.  We paid for two extra bags $410 and we were off through security.

We had done some Sphaghetti dinners to pay our trip expenses. We have gotten rave reviews from many on FB.  I have a few more dinners scheduled for future trips.  I believe I will be back in Kenya in June and one more time this year to get the pregnancy crises center committees moving until a partner comes back from the states to Kenya in January.  Our next Spaghetti Dinners are Tuesday, May 7 and June 4.  Just in box me on FB to place your order.  It will be ready for pick up in New Berlin any time after 2:30 p.m.  Let me know what time you will come and I will have it ready for you at that time.

Before I left, I was doing a lot of research on guardianship and adoption through the Kenya Children's Act and US Visas. I have a few friends that would like to adopt from Kenya and I am thinking about it as well.


April 21, 2013 - Sunday - Nairobi

Got in at 2:15am.  All luggage accounted for!!!!!  That was a bit of a stress after last year when we lost one and our group lost all.   We had 11 pieces of luggage.  We were able to avoid any fees in Kenya on our domestic flight from Nairobi to Mombasa thanks to Paul and Rose being able to take a bunch of our luggage in their car for their trip home on Tuesday.

We found our ride after a little stress, they came at 3am.  We arrived at an apartment and by the time we got to bed it was well after 5am.  We needed to leave by 10am so we had to get up by 9:15 am.  I could not sleep at all I was not tired.  I could not sleep and once it was 8 when I was a little tired, their started moving furniture upstairs.  So I got no sleep that night.

We were off the baby elephant orphanage. It is a place that goes out into the wild bushes and looks for baby elephants that are orphaned. There is a huge problem with poaching of elephants for their ivory and that leaves baby elephants orphaned.  They have an hour presentation explaining what they do. The babies are feed by large baby bottles.

Then we headed to an orphanage past Karen, just southwest I believe of Nairobi in Ngong.  The hills over there are gorgeous. This woman, Zipporah, was so sweet and  has an amazing story of  asking God to provide every day.

She started her mission work with her husband reaching out to kids in a nearby slum area.  Then she started taking a few kids into their home. Then it turned into a co-ed orphanage and then a primary school, a farm and crops which the children tend, and then a secondary school and now a church. She speaks internationally including in the US and currently has 219 kids in the school and 118 in the orphanage.

We also met an amazing woman, Roberta who was originally born in Illinois but moved. She was in Arizona I believe when she went on a mission trip with her church in the summer of 2011. During that trip she knew God was calling her back and to make a difference in the lives of other people.  Four months later, she had sold everything she owned and moved to Kenya for good in November 3, 2011.  She is opening a medical clinic on the site of the orphanage.  She had no plan and no support, just a word from God and the courage to follow that even when it didn't seem to make sense.  Now she knows these kids by name and has special connection as well as the support she is to Zipporah by being there.  She misses her daughter Kristen Joy terribly, but other than that she has not regretted one minute of it.

Her daughter sells things on ETSY.com and some of the funds go toward supporting various non-profits.

Then from there, we left to go to Krista and Sheun Trumps home. They are the Lutheran missionaries in Nairobi. We had a wonderful dinner. Krista is an amazing cook.  We had a chance to catch up with them and get so progress on the high school and mission trip for next february or march 2014.

Then it was back to the apartment to sleep, hopefully.

Monday, April 22- Nairobi

No sleep again, but nonetheless, we were off to New Life Trust baby orphanage.  Lots of adoptions through this place.  They provide very good care for babies, with  lots of interaction and a schedule for the kids.  We were able to feed the 4-8 month olds- Leon Belinda, David, Evan.  Lots of boys again.  Then we got a quick tour.

Meet with Ms. OJ., Grace and Ginny.  They are running a pregnancy crises center in Nairobi.  we learned so much from them about how to lay this out and where to network with others to provide services. They have trainings and curriculum for working on prevention in the schools which is already approved to use in schools if we can train people on the coast to use it. Very exciting.

Then we were off to Kibera to see Benta and her wonderful kids at her preschool.  This is the place where she runs a preschool for HIV positive children and also helps to provide pregnancy woman their anti-viral medicine so their babies can turn negative possibly after birth.  I like to purchase jewelry and other items from her to help their mission. Then I bring it  home to sell to raise money for our mission of the pregnancy crises center.

When we arrived, they were singing for us.  The total preschool is a room the size of a large walk in closed in the US maybe 9X9 or so. They have no posters, no books, just a small chalk board and a lot of singing. We brought some flashcards, crayons and other supplies for them. We taught them a few songs. They all introduced themselves. A few of the kids at the school are orphans.

Then Sue, Laura, Paul and Rose walked around the streets of Kibera for awhile. Jayne and I and the driver went to a meeting with Sylvestor to continue working toward the South Coast High School for Risen Savior Lutheran Church and the great work of Ken Kernan, fighting for the kids of Kenya. That meeting went so well. We most of the items in place that we need for the application to the LCMS for initial funding of the project. We heard that the orphanage that they have is fully funded by a group in Scandinavia which was exciting. We have the land for the high school in Wema on the South Coast. So it is just a matter of getting the building.  There are not very many secondary (high schools) on South Coast so very excited to see this move forward.  This was the project that we came with the vision of building a primary school last summer but within 1 hour of discussing the project a secondary school came up twice and now less than 1 year later we are at the point of getting a proposal through to the LCMS.  Very exciting.  Help us pray for approval from them and it gets started very fast.  It could help my favorite school Tiwi as right now we do not have a secondary school near by to send the children too and this would be near by as both of the schools are on the south coast and not too far apart.

Then we were back to the apartment to clear out our bags and head to the airport. It had rained in Nairobi the week before including the Saturday before we came constantly. While we were there, it did not rain at all. As we were driving to the airport it started to rain. Great timing. Our flight was on-time to Mombasa. While in the airport I sold two books!  I feel like a real author!  One to a guy, Mike, who travels placing bibles in schools, hospitals, and other clinics for Gideon.  One to a woman, Mercy who is in the Christian Lawyers Association. It was very cool to talk with them about what we are doing and getting some networking with them. We were excited to get to Mombasa and finally sleep in comfy beds.

See Sue Huerta's Facebook for photos.  I cannot get my ipad to upload photos to this!