So it took me a while, but here are a few choice samples of my venture to the nation of Kenya.
Notes on pictures are ABOVE the picture.
Between July 24th and August 7th, myself and 9 other members of my United Methodist Church were commissioned and sent to Maua, Kenya to assist the Maua Methodist Hospital, particularly their programs to help children who had been orphaned by AIDS. Most did not have AIDS, fortunately, but most also were left without parents, had their land taken from them by aunts and uncles, and had younger siblings to care for in the absence of parents.
The purpose of our trip was, mostly, to encourage the social workers for the hospital, the orphaned children, and the people of Kenya in general. We took with us only one bag of clothes each, and then a bag full of medical supplies that we delivered to the hospital as donations from our home church and assorted medical workers around the Memphis area. Lastly, we built a two-room home for two orphans and the aunt that had taken them in and given them shelter.
For three days, we went to a Bio-Intensive Farm in Meru, Kenya with 8 AIDS orphans that had been selected by their peers (about 400 other heads-of-family orphans) to represent them and learn about how to increase their agricultural output and reduce crop loss and risks. They then went back and taught what they had learned to 20 other heads-of-families, who would then teach their young siblings.
At the conclusion of the trip, we "debriefed" to reflect on our experiences. This included a short stay at the Samburu Game Reserve. It was quite strange to go from serving and working to such relaxation and being served, but you must consider that we were helping to stimulate their weak economy by bringing a bit more life into their recently crashing tourism industry.
To the pictures!
Being white (mzungu, or wazungu if 2+) in Kenya is kind of like being a celebrity in America. We saw babies cry when they saw us, simply because we were so new and peculiar, and ghostly white compared to normal people! I suppose it makes sense considering there were only 15 white people to the 80,000 in the area around Maua, Kenya.
These children were home during lunch hour and came to watch us build the house for the AIDS orphans. We sang, played some simple games... and they stared at us for the better part of fifteen to thirty minutes.
You can't see how many children there were (probably abut 200-250 from my best guess) around me, but here's a shot my mom got of me waving and high-fiving the kids.
These children were under the care of the aunt who was caring for the AIDS orphans (these kids were not orphans, their cousins were. got it? good!) or at least hung around her home with her kids. They watched us in amazement all day long.
These guys are a group of AIDS orphans we took to a special research/teaching center farm that focuses on using little to no chemicals and increasing agricultural output while keeping the land and soil healthy to maintain crops for many, many generations. 7 guys, 1 girl. This picture was taken at the conclusion of their weekend training and, being the drinking man I am, I decided to give them a toast with coca-cola. Might as well have been liquid gold (or Jack Daniel's in my opinon) to them, since they are all too poor to afford such luxuries as coca-cola, and have many younger siblings to help survive.
Here is just a tiny, tiny, tiny sample of the animals we saw at Samburu Game Reserve. If I recall correctly, this is the lioness we called Lizzy. We saw her stalk a herd of impalas soon after this picture was taken. She didn't catch one, unfortunately. As you can see, we got VERY close to her-- the lions and lionesses don't mind the safari vans at all. We got within three feet of her a number of occasions (we saw 4 lionesses total, on 10 different occasions).
Here's a few elephants, part of a bigger herd, chilling by the river.
This is from Maua, a waterfall in the hills above town. This waterfall provides most of the water to the city, and is probably dried up at this very moment, sadly. They'll have to bring water in by truck. Anyways, the scenery is beautiful.
More pictures up on demand. Questions answered on demand.