Before we left the US, Mary Schumm (our team leader) gave us a schedule. She had laid out what we would be doing on each day, but as she gave it to us she warned us that just because we had a schedule didn't mean that is what we would be doing. She said we would need to be flexible; that Kenyan time isn't the same as US time.
She was right.
We've been in Kenya for almost two days and so far almost nothing has gone as planned. Our last flight was delayed leaving Amsterdam and we arrived in Nairobi a couple hours later than scheduled. The next day our drivers arrived to pick us up several hours later than we had been told they would arrive. As we headed out of Nairobi, we discovered that what we had been told would be a 2 hour drive was actually a 4-6 hour drive...depending on traffic of course. It actually took 7 hours.
So we're being flexible.
We were disappointed that we had to wait an extra day to meet the children and get to work on the tomato farm we came to plant, but the delays gave us opportunities to grow closer as a team and time to get to know each other better. We also got to see a lot of the Kenyan countryside, including mountains, zebras and baboons, and it is beautiful!
Ways you can be praying:
- Wifi. This seems like such a first world thing to pray for, but several of us have small children we left behind and we would love to be able to talk to them and the wifi at our hotel has not been working.
- Continued team unity and flexibility.
- That we would be a light to the children and the house parents at the homes we visit as well as those we encounter along the way.
- Continued safety.
