Last update from Kenya!

Tonight I fly home.

Wait. WHAT?! 

Eight weeks has flown by in a heartbeat. It's hard to believe that the summer is ending and it is time to head back home! I keep staring at my screen thinking that if I don't write any of this I won't have to leave. But I am excited to return home and to share this wonderful experience with you all and hear about how God has worked in your lives as well!
I'm also starting to realize how hard goodbyes really are. But here's the thing about hard goodbyes: they mean that you've made a relationship with those around you, allowed yourself to be vulnerable, and that you care.

To bring you up to speed on our last couple weeks in country:

Monica and I arrived back in Nairobi last week from Ewaso Ng'iro. Saying goodbye was hard but we know that there is great work being done at the clinic for the people in the surrounding areas. For the past eight weeks we have been able to learn, grow, and see God move in incredible ways.  The clinic system has an amazing group of clinicians, nurses, and staff who are committed to providing healing and care to the people around them. They were incredible teachers to us but even more than that they were, and still are, better friends. The impact that they have left on my life as a nursing student and an individual is one that will be lifelong.

We then traveled to Malindi to spend time at the CMF retreat with other interns and missionaries from Kenya and Ethiopia! I'm grateful for the time that we had debriefing, getting to know the other missionaries that are serving in different places in Africa, and the ministries that they are working in. It was also great to see the beautiful people from Grandview Christian Church and spend time helping out in kids ministry with them. I'm so thankful for all of the love and encouragement that they poured into all the missionaries and their families while at the coast. I know for me it was such a blessing to see familiar faces from home and to spend time in the presence of such sweet people.

Right now Monica and I are back in Nairobi spending the last few hours that we have left with our host family, the Cluff's. I'm so grateful for the patience and love that they have shown us both this whole summer. It has been a blessing to have their guidance while learning to live in a completely new culture. Both Kim and Joe along with their two great kids are a fantastic family and the work that they are doing here in Kenya is a blessing to all those around them.

It's hard right now to process a whole summer but I do know that this internship has been far more than I ever could have imagined. I've been stretched in ways that I never thought that I would be stretched and learned to love in a completely different culture. Through everything God has remained constant and His faithfulness has endured. I'm so thankful for all that I have been able to experience while in Kenya and I want to thank you all for the support that you have given me this summer. Without your donations, love, and prayers I wouldn't be here! There aren't enough words to convey my gratitude and love for you all but know that you mean the world to me, even from and ocean away.

I can't wait to see you all state side but for now though packing calls....

Much Love and Many Thanks,
Anne 

Kenya Update 2!

Well friends it’s been a few weeks since I posted last so let me bring you up to speed on my current adventure in Kenya. The internet out here is incredibly slow and a bit spotty. So I wish I could update you all more often but I am very thankful for the internet that we have, even if it is slow.

 

Monica and I have been at the Ewaso Ng’iro clinic for about three weeks now and it has been great so far! We have finally gotten ourselves settled into the team house on the compound and minus the spiders we are doing well. We have a resident gecko named Mumford, who coincidently is a hopeless wanderer, and by that I mean he lives behind our couch. Since he eats the spiders though, we’re happy to let our little friend stay.  *It breaks my heart to say that since writing this post Mumford has sadly passed on. RIP Mumford. L*

We are now staying in Ewaso Ng’iro, which is about 3 hours from Nairobi. It’s a rural, small town but we are only 20 minutes from a bigger town, Narok, where we go to do shopping and get other supplies. Traveling wise we take matatus, which are Kenyan taxis, between towns. Getting to know and engaging in the Maasai culture has been getting better each week and we’ve found the Maasai people to be incredibly hospitable and loving toward us while we have been here. The Maasai name that I have been given is Namunyak which means “blessed”. Funny story-The first time that I introduced myself to a national I got confused and called myself “Nakumatt” which is a grocery store in Kenya. So essentially I said “Hi, my name is grocery store!”

 

So far our time spent with the clinic has been eye opening and filled with learning experiences. Being a nursing student from the U.S. it has been interesting to see healthcare in a different setting. The clinic has the basics to care for patients but none of the super sophisticated machinery and supplies that are commonly available back home. Despite that though I have seen the clinical staff constantly care for the people with the resources that they have and still work to provide holistic care even in a rural setting.

Working at the clinic has allowed us to observe and practice in a wide variety of areas such as seeing patients with clinicians, helping in the pharmacy, maternity, and pediatrics. The majority of cases are HIV/AIDS patients, water borne illnesses, and urinary tract infections.  We have also had opportunities to travel out to surrounding field clinics to distribute medications to HIV/AIDS patients and help in immunization clinics for locals. I have found the clinicians and staff to be great teachers as well. They have allowed me to continue to practice the skills that I already know while also taking initiative to help teach new ones and explain the different treatments for the patients that we see.

 

During our time here we were blessed to be able to travel out to the village of Olkoroi and stay with the always wonderful Angela Highfield and family! Angela is a close friend of mine who just graduated from Milligan College, so it was great seeing a familiar face all the way in Africa. While there we got to experience a different side of mission work apart from the clinic. We got to go to a nearby village and evangelize and encourage a woman and her children and see a well being put in for a community. It was an incredibly humbling experience to see the praise and happiness that clean water was able to bring people. Sunday we then went out to a new church plant. Even though church was held in a different language and under a tree, God’s presence was there. It was so cool to experience that even in a culture which is very different from my own that God still remains the same and that there is no cultural barrier to the movement of the Holy Spirit.

 

Thank you all for your continual prayers and know that you are in mine as well! I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for all the support and love that each of you have poured into my life. I have loved my time here in Kenya and I’m excited share my stories, struggles, and joys that God has given me with you all when I return home. Until then I pray that you all are doing well, soaking up some sunshine, and that your 4^th of July weekend was a blast! HA! Get it?! ;)

 

Much love and many goats,

Anne