Kenya: HS group farewell, next steps

The 15 DC-area high school students and their two other U.S. chaperones are leaving Kenya tonight to return home.  We just had our final reflections on what this trip has meant to us and what we will do with our new found insights going forward. For me these questions are much more complicated.  How do I combine my passion for choral music, international travel & development, Africa, and the Children of Kibera Foundation and Red Rose School.  I know that this will be a large part of my life moving forward.  Know that I plan to chat with each of you personally about this experience and how we can help these kids who are so incredibly deserving.

This morning we visited Kibera Paper, another fantastic small business giving employment opportunities to Kibera citizens.  They receive large trash bags full of shredded paper from Nairobi area banks.  From there they break it down into a slurry/pulp and then create new artisan paper with which they make greeting cards.  I got to help cut some paper and met one of the artists who is hired to do some paintings for the greeting cards.  They are beautiful.  From Kibera Paper we visited the elephant orphanage inside Nairobi National Park.  We got to pet some baby elephants and learn about their work.  They rescue abandoned elephants from all around Africa. 

In the meantime, a silly video of me "getting down" at Buru Buru Girls Boarding School.  The adage about white folks not being able to dance really is true! ;)