Kenya: first morning and Simple Gifts

Greetings from Nairobi, Kenya. 

It was a long time coming here, but I am feeling good and extremely optimistic about this trip!

I flew Turkish Air.  Washington Dulles - Istanbul (9.5 hours) and Istanbul to Nairobi (6 hours).  I slept very little on the flights.  I arrived at Shalom House, my home base for the next month, around 4 am this morning.  I slept a couple hours, and then had breakfast with some American students from Concordia University in Irvine, California.  Today I will head to the local shopping center to buy water and other essentials for the trip.  Tonight I will have dinner with Ken Okoth, founder and executive director of Children of Kibera Foundation as well as some parents from the DC area.  Then Ken and I will head to the airport to meet the fifteen high school students and two other chaperones I will be with the next two weeks.

My American upbringing has really colored my expectations.  I feel a little strange about having such deluxe accommodation when my charge is to serve children in Kibera who have no permanent structure to live in.  I have a large bed and a TV in my room-- and my own washroom as well.  Then this morning when my shower was luke-warm I found myself annoyed.  For me, this is one of the main reasons I'm here-- to learn to live more simply.  I don't need so much stuff.  I've begun to realize that since moving into my *tiny* room at my new house in D.C.

It's no coincidence that one of the songs the highs school students and I are prepared to sing when called upon here is "Simple Gifts."  The lyrics will be my mantra.

'Tis the gift to be simple 'tis the gift to be free
'Tis the gift to come down where we ought to be
And when we find ourselves in the place just right,
'twill be in the valley of love and delight.
When true simplicity is gained to bow and to bend we shan't be ashamed.
To turn, turn 'twill be our delight,
'till be turning, turning we come 'round right. 

 

Kenya: pre-departure

I dreamed of Kenya all night last night. 

I am standing on a precipice.  It's strange knowing that in two short days your life will be forever changed.  It's strange leaving on a trip you know will be so life-altering. 

I am excited for this trip for a lot of reasons.  I feel like my first trip to Africa (South Africa, 2010) showed us mostly the Westernized and tourist parts of that country.  Now I'm going to see how real Africans live.  1 Billion people on this planet live in poverty.  1 billion.  I am going to meet them, and see how they live, and teach their kids.

I am going to do my best to blog as much as possible while abroad, and to post pictures.  Please keep in touch! See you on the flip side.

No more excuses

Well it has once again been far too long since I updated this blog.  A lot has happened since I last posted.  A Cliff's Notes version follows:

-I completed my first year of teaching at Norwood School.  I learned a lot about myself as a teacher and about private school education.
-I moved into DC!  No more suburbia.  I live in Shaw-- near Howard University.  I love living in the city. I can't believe it took me so long to move into a truly urban environment.
-My parents visited for just shy of a week from Michigan.  It was great to have them here.
-I have finalized plans for my Kenya trip.  I leave a week from Thursday!  I will spend the first 2.5 weeks chaperoning fourteen high school students, then will be on my own the last week.  I can't believe this is actually happening.  I am so grateful for the opportunity to go to Kenya and to teach music. This is such a dream come true in so many ways.

I want to blog more.  I want to live my creativity more and more.  I get so bogged down during the school year in to-do lists, e-mail, errands.... and I let that get in the way of my creative output.  I want to sing.  I want to write and arrange music.  I want to conduct.  I want to start a non-profit.  I want to live my creativity more every day.  And I will.  No more excuses.  Just truth.

I will be blogging in Kenya and posting pictures here and on Facebook.  You can follow the official blog for the beginning of my trip (with the Children of Kibera foundation) at http://kenyaservicelearningadventure.wordpress.com/.