At about 9:15, they arrived. It was a very awesome thing to see people we don't know and be reunited with people we love. Scott, Alisa, Lucas and the rest of the team fell off the bus out of exhaustion really. They had been traveling for so long with no real sleep. All they wanted was a warm shower and some breakfast. We could meet both those needs.
As we all sat down to eat, we began to meet the team of 9 from Virginia. Once we were done eating, we got ready and got loaded on the bus because we still had a full day planned. We traveled to the largest slum in Africa, Kibera. This is a 5 mile square area that holds more than 1.1 million people and is one of the poorest areas in Kenya, and possibly in Africa. It is a place that we go on the first day of our trip to show everyone what poverty really looks like. Here, most families (at least two adults and 3-4 kids) live on less than a dollar a day. Can you even fathom that? As this is my third time coming to Kenya, I sat there and listened to the school master that was telling us this and was yet again blown away by this fact. Most of these families live an entire day on what I would spend on a POLAR POP! How does that work? I just don't understand honestly...my mind just can't wrap around that staggering fact. If I buy a pack of gum, I am spending more money that an entire family does in one day. Our purpose for going into Kibera is to go to a school and interact with the kids there as well as help feed them through Feed the Children. The program feeds more than 150,000 kids each day throughout Kenya. They rely on donations and help from the World Food Program. While interacting with one of the kids, Dale was amazed at the kindness of the children. Sitting and playing with them while they ate their lunch, one of the kids offered Dale some of their lunch. What?! This is the only meal they will eat most days and they are offering it to us? They are willing to share what they have even if it means they get less? What a foreign concept to us! We live in a culture of plenty whether we realize it or not and now we have kids offering us food out of the little that they have. For Dale, as a Christ follower, it was a convicting gesture. How humble and how loving are these people! If we were starving and hungry and knew we would only get one meal a day in America, how many of us would be offering to give that meal away? Not many!
After we finished up in Kibera, we headed to the Feed the Children complex. There we were going to visit the Abandon Baby Center. This is a place that takes in abandoned babies that are left at the hospitals or left with the police. It is a super nice place! We go on a tour of their facility and see all the different services they offer. Of course everyone's favorite place is the baby rooms. In fact, this is where Lucas was adopted from! It's always a special moment for Alisa and Scott to revisit that room where they first met him.
After touring the facility, we made a quick stop to pick up some water for everyone and then headed back to Heart House. Once back we relaxed for a moment and then it was time for dinner. One of our safety precautions is that we are always back at Heart House by dusk so we aren't out at night. We ate dinner and then had a short team meeting to find out what the next day had in store for us. Then it was hang out time and, for most of us, it was catch up on jet lag/sleep time.
What an incredible day it was! I can't wait to see what God has in store for us tomorrow!
I love you Mallory!!!
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