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What Remains of You and What Comes With You?
What remains when you are gone? This is the truest test of significance. Any time that we have an interaction, we must recognize its affect. Do we positively affect the lives of others? Are we able to receive the good that others have to offer? In venturing to Kisumu, in visiting Davis, not only do I get the opportunity to grow tremendously from the love I am shown along the way, but I also have the incredible responsibility of representing a culture. I have the opportunity to represent myself and others like me; those who see a world that has been blessed with so many resources that are unreasonably spread.…
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Final Day in Karen: Kazuri Beads and Life as a Farmer
After a 7:30 am breakfast and a 9 am check-out, I sat in the visitors area reading a book about an Irish arctic explorer. There was a peace in having no cell phone, no arrangements, no connection to the responsibilities and obligations of the world outside for only just one day. I had awoken without the assistance of a cell phone alarm as the battery had been completely dead since the day before. I had been using sparingly without the charger, turning off airplane mode for 10-15 seconds for an update every six hours or so, but now even that was out of the question, so I sat peacefully, reading…
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Karen, Day 3: The Irish Group Leaves to the Village
Originally posted on January 3, 2020 on playbeautifulsoccer.net On my third day in Karen, the Irish group left to go to the village. The village is an incredible, self-sustaining community of HIV/AIDS orphans a few hours drive away from town. Last time I was in Kenya, I was blessed to visit for a day to help with medical check-ups for the children there. After medical check-ups, I found a ball and the rest is captured in the picture below: Due to the rigors of the journey thus far (low sleep, illness, constant interaction), it was time for me to take my rest. I had decided that I would not take…
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Karen, Day 2: Nyumbani Home
It was a night filled with writhing as the discomforts of food poisoning ravaged my body. My mind kept thinking about the things I had eaten the day before with a strong mental gag. I awoke early to join the nuns for a 7 am Mass since I did not think that I would make it through a day of fun at the orphanage. However, when I went out at our predetermined meeting time of 6:45 am, nobody was there, so I went back to sleep until breakfast at 7:30 am. Although I did not eat breakfast, feeling no sense of hunger, I socialized with the Irish group and decided…
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Leaving Kisumu
After a lovely breakfast and a quick morning of packing, setting Davis up with the laptop and action camera for the Kisumu Greenland SoccerPlus FC program, and finishing emails and blog posts, it was time for the last leg of the journey. Though my cough had begun subsiding, the pressure from congestion and ringing in my ears remained. The 10:50 am flight was to be a simple one, 50 minutes at best, via Kenya Airways. As I waited in an empty line with no employees running the desk around 9:30 am, I wondered what the expectation was for check in. About 20 minutes later, a man came by and said,…
