This past week has been so great for all of us! Four teams from Baylor University have come to Nairobi for a two week mission trip. They arrived early last week and I can't tell you how great it has been to spend time with old friends and making connections with new ones.
I have been waiting very impatiently for my great friends, Ben, Jamie, Tracy, and one of my best friends in life, Kelly. They are the ones that I call or email constantly for advice and support. I'm so thankful that they have the patience of a preschool teacher. I am going to be so sad to see them go, but I know that I will see them again!
Deborah and Ann have been having the time of their lives meeting all the new visitors and spending time with all of them. They have also been working overtime with their small businesses. The UBC group came to the house to visit last week and placed orders for items they wanted the girls to make for them. This is so great because they have been struggling to find places to sell their items.
On Friday night, I was asked by the leader of the Baylor sports team (Wes Yeary) to talk to his group and tell them what I do here. I was a bit nervous because its extremely rare for me to explain what I do here verbally. Its usually just through email or blogs and even those are just updates.
When I went in to talk to the group I figured that it would be me talking for about ten to fifteen minutes about Karama House, then off to bed. I have gotten used to people asking about the program and it only taking up about 10 minutes of the conversation. That was not the case that particular evening. I stayed in that room answering questions and telling stories for almost 3 hours... it was amazing. There were about 8 or 9 of them that stayed the entire time asking every question under the sun. I could not believe that they were all so interested in what I had to say and I kept telling them that they could go to bed at any time and I wouldn't be offended. They insisted that they were really interested and wanted to hear more.
As you can probably tell, these past five months have not been what I or anyone had expected. I was completely focused on keeping the girls safe, and keeping the program running. I didn't realize that I was feeling like something was missing in my life. All the emails I have been getting from friends and family have helped enormously. They actually made me forget for a while that I was running this program alone. I knew that there were people that supported me in the States but sometimes its not so apparent when I can't see it for my self.
After talking to the 9 amazing young women for hours on Friday night I got a visual sense of support that I had been missing my entire time here.
Spending two weeks in a foreign land on a mission trip and seeing things you would never see in your daily life can be overwhelming. Knowing that, I appreciate even more, the support I got just from that one night. Even if every one of those young women go back to the States and I never hear from them again, their enthusiasm and support for those few hours will be appreciated and remembered forever.
So, if any of you have been thinking about going to volunteer in a foreign land but don't think that you will make an impact, think again. Just a few words of encouragement to someone who needs it, can bring that person back to life.
Thanks again to all the teams from Baylor visiting various projects in Kenya, you are all really making a huge difference in the lives of the people here.
-Larissa
