Last day in Nairobi notes

Saturday…most of our group headed off for Tanzania, but Bethany, Megan, Toni, Clare, Annie, John and Joy made plans to go to the elephant orphanage. Patrick planned to pick us up at 9:30 so that we would be at the orphanage in time to see the baby elephant parade, baths and feeding. At 10 AM we began to be worried. While we were waiting, we discovered that the hotel had rented our rooms out to others believing that we had gone with the rest of the group to Tanzania.

Bethany negotiated for no little time and managed to get the hotel to just remove a bed from one of the rooms and let us keep the room. We suspect that some of those just arriving would find themselves doubling up in our confiscated bed!

Patrick was delayed because he was finally able to get the books from the airport and was eager to get them to Mercy Care Centre. When he arrived we had just enough time to make it to the orphanage. When Patrick tried to leave the guest house with all of us aboard the car refused to go up the drive way which had an incline. We all got out, walked up the hill and then reloaded to head off toward the orphanage. Every time we came to a hill we all sang at the top of our lungs, “God is so Good” hoping we would make it to the top.

The baby elephants ranging in age from 3 months to three years were playful and eager to be petted and have their trunks blown into. The trainer said that if we would blow into the trunks that the baby would have our scent and would never forget us. That may have been true, or all the Kenyan elephant keepers may have been having a good laugh as visitors from all over the world blew kisses into the trunks of baby elephants.

We also got up close and personal with a rhino. He was not as sweet as the baby elephants, but did remind me of myself early in the morning before makeup.

We went to the national animal park for lunch and had a roasted meat platter with interesting sauces for lunch. We were seated on a covered veranda and were serenaded by some Maasai.

We then headed for the market to buy some gifts including some musical instruments, jewelry and clothing so that we would be prepared to do some programs back home about our Kenya experience in hopes of raising some financial support for Mercy Care Centre.

We made another stop at the Yaya Center to have some samosas (wonderful meat and vegetable pastries with lime juice) and to pick up a few items for the trip home.

Last night we had a farewell dinner with all of the teachers form Mercy Care. We will miss these new friends, but will continue to pray for them when we return to America.

Tomorrow morning we will accompany Patrick to his church in Nairobi. It is the largest Pentacostal church in Kenya. We will not have much time before we head for the airport where we will fly to Addis Ababba in Ethiopia, then on to Rome and finally on to DC. We will be in the air about 17 hours, but we will be losing about 7 hours so it will seem like an even longer trip than it actually will be. Coming over John and I did not experience much jet lag, so we hope that is true returning as well.

So many things here are different than home: the lay of the land, the climate, the language, the food, the dress, the driving rules (there aren’t any!) , but the most important things are the same. Love of the Lord still makes for the strongest bonds between people and a smile still makes everything better.