Home

Hi all! We are home. Abe, John, Adam, Leon, Byron and me arrived in Calgary on Saturday afternoon, and have been trying to recover from jet lag, and missing good friends in Kenya. What a fabulous two weeks! It all went by very quickly. Too quickly.

There were so many highlights of our time in Kenya. And visiting Najile during the second week was so great, particularly connecting with friends we met when we were there in 2009. Included in the Take Your Place cd is a dvd with a few videos of our time in Najile. At the end of one of the shorter pieces is a clip of Darryl and Krista's daughter, Natasha, playing a hand game with a young girl named Priscilla, who is HIV+, and who spent part of an afternoon with us, sharing her story. Last week we had the great privilege of meeting Priscilla again at Najile Primary School. She has grown taller, put on some weight, and looks great! She was very shy, but at the end of our visit she came up to me and handed me a note and a bracelet for Natasha. So sweet. Both of her parents died of AIDS. She is being raised by her grandmother. She is excelling at school, and lives with such courage.

The second meeting that was a highlight for us was to see Eunice again. Eunice is a young woman from the Ewaso area. When we met her in 2009, she was 16 and in grade 7. Her father, when she was 12, was going to marry her to a friend of his who was 63 years old. Eunice ran away, and was found by a teacher at Ewaso Primary School, who took her in, got her into school, and provided her with the love and support she needed to succeed. Eunice completed grade 8, wrote her national exam, and was put through to secondary school. Unfortunately, before the school year began...just a month ago...her father again tried to marry her off, and sent her to a remote village. Teacher and mentor, Timothy Tanin, found her two weeks after school began. He made arrangements with the Najile Girl's Secondary School, and got Eunice there two weeks late. She is thriving. And she too has grown taller, looking healthier, happy. What a gift to meet her again and to see her in school, working toward a brighter future.

It is a bit surreal to be home. We had so many wonderful experiences over the past two weeks. Being home makes it all feel like none of it actually happened. But receiving text messages, emails and phone calls from friends in Kenya keeps us connected, and so very grateful for the experiences we had and new friendships that were formed.