Just wanted to shoot a quick update that the day is finally here! I'm all packed up and ready to head out to the airport. Laura and I are going to be leaving MCI at 6pm tonight and we have a lengthy lay-over in NYC. Tomorrow we continue our trip with a stop in Dubai and then arriving in Nairobi on Thursday the 27th.
As of now the plan is to stay in Nairobi with Dan and Emily to wait for the villiage to dry out a little bit before going out that way.
Please pray for safe travels for Laura and I, and our family at home to not worry about us too much!
Next time I update, I'll be in Africa!!!
-Christy
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
Thursday, April 29, 2010
26 days and counting
Hello all!
I am officially departing the U.S in less than one month! Time is flying by and I will be getting on that plane in no time! As the date is approaching fast I would love for prayers to help decrease my anxiety with all of the finishing touches we are making to this trip and finishing up school! I had my last night working at Children's Mercy so I am officially on a day schedule again. Living life on a normal schedule will hopefully allow for more time to get homework and projects finished up and start working on education materials to bring with me to Kenya and starting the process of packing!
Dan and Emily are leaving for Kenya this week and we will not be able to communicate with them until we get off that plane in Africa! Prayers for their safe travel and adjustment are greatly appreciated.
After our meeting with Dan and Emily we learned more about the mission statement of Dala Development and our plan while over there. We are going to be taking a relational approach to helping this community develop instead of giving them all of our resources and having them become dependent on our aide. We are going to be helping them find their own connections and resources within their community to help with development. In particular Laura and I will be working with the local community center and hospital to help the community build trust in the aide that the hospital and community center can provide and know that they are there to help, not steal their money for useless treatments. Education will also be our goal in letting the community know what symptoms to go to the hospital for, STI prevention and AIDS teaching, hypertension, diabetes, and general first aide education. We are planning on doing a community assessment day where we will test blood pressure, blood glucose levels, eye sight, and oral health.
We have a lot of plans for this trip but the main plan is to be flexible for whatever the community needs and situations that arrive. Its a community that events change from day to day so nothing is certain and we just need to be open for the situations that God provides us to be in and ways to help!
That is all for now. Hope all is well and thanks for participating in this journey with me by reading my blog and praying for my team, the community, and me.
-Christy
I am officially departing the U.S in less than one month! Time is flying by and I will be getting on that plane in no time! As the date is approaching fast I would love for prayers to help decrease my anxiety with all of the finishing touches we are making to this trip and finishing up school! I had my last night working at Children's Mercy so I am officially on a day schedule again. Living life on a normal schedule will hopefully allow for more time to get homework and projects finished up and start working on education materials to bring with me to Kenya and starting the process of packing!
Dan and Emily are leaving for Kenya this week and we will not be able to communicate with them until we get off that plane in Africa! Prayers for their safe travel and adjustment are greatly appreciated.
After our meeting with Dan and Emily we learned more about the mission statement of Dala Development and our plan while over there. We are going to be taking a relational approach to helping this community develop instead of giving them all of our resources and having them become dependent on our aide. We are going to be helping them find their own connections and resources within their community to help with development. In particular Laura and I will be working with the local community center and hospital to help the community build trust in the aide that the hospital and community center can provide and know that they are there to help, not steal their money for useless treatments. Education will also be our goal in letting the community know what symptoms to go to the hospital for, STI prevention and AIDS teaching, hypertension, diabetes, and general first aide education. We are planning on doing a community assessment day where we will test blood pressure, blood glucose levels, eye sight, and oral health.
We have a lot of plans for this trip but the main plan is to be flexible for whatever the community needs and situations that arrive. Its a community that events change from day to day so nothing is certain and we just need to be open for the situations that God provides us to be in and ways to help!
That is all for now. Hope all is well and thanks for participating in this journey with me by reading my blog and praying for my team, the community, and me.
-Christy
Thursday, March 25, 2010
Getting excited!
Hello all!
I heard that some of you were receiving my support letters so I thought it would be a good time to start blogging! First of all, as my letter said, I hope you all are doing well and I hope to be able to give you all a little more of the details and progress of my trip than my letter was able to articulate.
I will be in Kenya for two months, leaving Kansas City May 25th and returning the evening of July 16th. I will be staying with my cousin in law's parents while in Nyakach. There we will have very different living situations with squatty potties, splash showers (available only a few times a week), and intermittent electricity. My cousin suggeseted that I bring over a bandana because we will not be able to shower daily and it will help manage my dirty hair! From my understanding, there is a town a few miles away that has internet access which we can use every other week due to the journey it takes to get there. We might be able to use my cousin's cell phone to text family a little more frequently to update them on our safety. The main mode of transportation we will be using while over there are motorcycles. We will be commuting by motorcycle to the two hospitals we will be volunteering at which will be a fun and new situation for me. We plan to work in and with the community from the time we arrive until July 8th where we will travel to the coast for a week on the beach with my cousin and her husband and another group of tourists. This will be our time to relax, have fun, and see more of Africa before coming back to the States. We are planning to go on a 2 day safari at some point during the trip as well which I am very excited about!
My friend Laura, that is going with me, and myself are going to be meeting with my cousin Emily and her husband Dan this weekend to finalize plans for the trip and get a better understanding of our trip. Emily and Dan live in Illinois so this will be the first time they meet Laura and the first time we talk in person about the trip. Although we have not all met in person, we have been planning this trip for over a year and we are all getting excited as the trip gets closer. I hope that this meeting gives us more clarity and peace about the trip and more information for me to post here for you all to read!
While planning this trip, I am currently finishing up nursing school (graduating 5/16/10), preparing to take the nursing board test to get the official RN letters behind my name, job searching, and working a little bit as well. As a part of my last semester in nursing school, I am working with an RN at Children's Mercy on the night shift (7pm-7am) two nights a week for a total of 320 clinical hours by the end of the semester. I also work a shift one day a week at my job at KUMED on the neuroscience floor as a nursing aide. I have a busy schedule to say the least but I am not impossible to get ahold of and would love to communicate with all of you in any way possible.
I think this post is enough to digest for the time being but I will update you all after the meeting I have this weekend with Emily and Dan. If you want more information about the organization I will be working with you can go to http://www.daladevelopment.org/.
Also here is a YouTube video of my cousin Emily giving the candy PopRocks to the members of a Maasai villiage. Its funny and gives you a view of the people and environment we will be interacting with. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PDAZcl4TJVQ
With love,
Christy
P.S. Here are the key players in this trip
This is Laura, my friend who will be graduating with me from nursing school in May.
This is my cousin Emily and her husband Dan. Both are the creaters of the organization Dala Development and live part time in Kenya and part time here in the States. I believe they will be in Kenya starting at the beginning of May and staying there for 6 months!
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