We have now been in Kenya for 5 days, our skin is turning dark, I have a small sunburn on my back, and we know a few survival words in Swahili. Kenya and I are getting along just great.

Each day we have been in Nairobi we have gone to town for various errands and to meet with friends. A task that would take an American 30 minutes to an hour to accomplish, takes us an entire day due to limited access to transportation and lots of walking! The city of Nairobi is incredible due to the amount of noise, pollution, dirt, and dense population. We were driving home in a matatu last night and we looked out the window and Emily asked us if it was raining up ahead but Laura and I both saw that it was not the case, smog was just laying like a blanket over the city and making visibility almost impossible. After spending the whole day in the city, we blew black boogers out of our noses for sure!

Today is a national holiday, the day they became a republic. We went to the down town soccer arena and saw the president and prime minister speak. I couldnt tell you what he said due to his thick accent, but it was great to be a part of something the citizens valued.

Here I saw a great example of community that this country has. A small child walked off from her mother in the big stadium and into a large crowd. A few men took the child and turned her around and pointed her back in the direction of her mother. I was relieved to see the community looking out for each other's backs.

Another thing that I am seeing here is hospitality and the ability to give generously even when you do not have much yourself. We are welcomed into friend's and family's houses which are already over crowded and busy and welcomed to stay there for hours and a meal is usually prepared for us. I am inspired to take a lesson from those over here and learn how to give more generously with my time and tallents.

I wrote a large blog yesterday, but the internet crashed when i was publishing it, so this is an abbreviated version. We are heading to the village on Saturday with the youth group and will probably not have access to internet quite so frequently.

With this week our team of Dan, Emily, Laura, and I have done lots of errands but we have started to truly get to know one another and form a great relationship.

I need to go now but I will post again as soon as I have access.
Thanks for reading and praying!