What a beautiful, painful, and celebratory week, my last week in Kenya.  I walked back through the doors of the schools which I had been going to my entire year after not going for a month (two for two months).  I was no longer Mr. Incognito to all of the smiling faces until I began to explain that I was leaving the next week and this was my last class with them.  I was under the impression when I left for Lodwar that I would have two weeks back in the schools, but the unusual timing of our closing retreat in Uganda had taken another week from time in schools.  Therefore, I walked in to smiling faces, explained that I was leaving to confused faces, and left to a mixture of faces.  I explained to them that I was sorry that I was only back for one class, but that it is the way life is sometimes.   Leaving each school was very difficult.  I was thanked many times at each school and I felt closure as I left and believe that the students did as well.

They have been the main focus of my time in Kenya and I am sure that as I continue to chew on my time in Kenya I will miss them more while realizing what they have taught me, nobody else could have.

St. Hannah's Girls Basketball Team


St. Hannah's Girls Secondary School


St. Hannah's Boys Secondary School


St. Nicholas Primary School


The biggest goodbye for me was leaving African Evangelistic Enterprise (AEE) which has been my home and office for the past year.  Friday, we had a very nice going away party for me where each person spoke and I closed with a lengthy speech about my year in Kenya.  What a blessing they have been in my life.  I wish that I could transfer my experience with the people at AEE to others, so that they undertood how amazing the people of AEE and Kenya are.  I will miss them and look forward to the day when I will get to see them again hopefully.

African Evangelistic Enterprise after my going away party:


During my last week, I also got to meet up with Nick from the Mark and Nick duo (I climbed Mount Kenya with Mark and his now finance, Karen).  Any who, Nick's girlfriend, Maggie who is from Stillwater, OK, has been in Kenya for the past month visiting Nick and I finally got to meet her and see Nick again.  She has been in Thailand for the past year and so it was nice to talk with people my age about our experiences at different places in the world besides Oklahoma while still speaking in our Oklahoman accents, it was great!

The Oklahoman Trio (Maggie, Me, and Nick):


The day before I left Kenya, I got to meet up with some friends from Austin College who are working in Nairobi for a month.  They are both members of the Christian fraternity I was in during college, Chi Tau Chi.  It was great to meet up with people from AC and talk about our friends on a first name basis.

The XTX/Austin College Trio (Emily, Me, and Daniel)


Cosmas and Robert's Last Adventure (for now)

Cosmas and I had our last adventure to visit his newish girlfriend, Nelly, on the other side of town.  As always, it was an adventure and great to see Cosmas before I left Kenya the next day.  At Nelly's, we watched Extreme Makeover Home Edition and I saw some of Ugly Betty for the first time.  Not what most people from the States think we do in Kenya, but for some Kenyans it is.  Until next time Cosmas.

Nelly, Me, and Cosmas:


Before we leave on the plane, Phyllis makes us a good big meal to send us off on a good note.  As my posts from Christmas and Thanksgiving have told you, Phyllis can cook incredible food, in taste and quantity.  She has been a great supervisor and friend.  I'm gonna miss Phyllis and her family. 

Phyllis' Mac and Cheese (The best I've ever had):


The Apple Pie for my going away party:


That's all for now.  I will continue to blog about my memories from Kenya as they come to me.  Until then, I am taking a European detour on my way home to visit my dad's only cousin in Paris and one of my best friends in Edinburgh with a few other detours in between those two.  I will blog about those experiences as they come, but for now I am focused on saying goodbye to Kenya.

So, goodbye for now Kenya, thank you for all of the joys and sorrows, new friends and new ways from which to view the world.

"Every new beginning comes from some other beginnings end." --Semisonic

Our Ugandan closing retreat did not just consist of us rafting down the source of Nile river, but another day as well. Phyllis, our site coordinator in Kenya, had told us since we arrived in Kenya that we were going to slaughter a lamb, skin it, and eat it. We thought she was joking. The morning after our rafting trip there was a lamb outside… we thought, “she’s really putting a lot into this joke.” Yeah, turns out she was not joking. Part of the broader African culture involves the spilling of blood during a major transition point in a person’s life, Phyllis explained. I personally felt, I have been eating goat and lamb my entire year with the mamas taking care of killing, skinning, and cooking our food. Therefore, I thought it was an important experience to have in realizing what occurs in order for me to eat every day here in Kenya. Apparently, it is difficult to kill a lamb, so we had a professional do the actual killing while other YAVs held the lamb down. Then some of the YAVs took turns skinning the lamb and preparing it to be cooked for dinner. That night we all sat around the grill as our lamb roasted and talked about our year of service together and our futures. It was a beautiful night spent enjoying good friends as our group of YAVs in Africa for the last time.

Kenya YAVs and Hawa in front of the Nile during our closing retreat:


Saturday, we had our farewell dinner at a nice restaurant at the Nairobi Game Park. Each YAV was able to invite two friends and their host parents. This was another very good experience in closing our year together as the Kenyan YAVs. I realized to an extent during the year what an amazing group of seven we were, but as what brought us together was ending I really was able to grasp what an impressive and eclectic group we are. I'm going to miss my Kenyan YAV brothers and sisters very much.

My two friends, William my boss, and Rodgers, AEE's handy man:


Kenya YAVs at the YAV closing dinner (We're good looking):



I was finally back in Nairobi after three weeks away and was ready to begin attending schools again to tell them all good-bye.

Lodwar School Choir (if you're only going to watch one video please make it this one)



Refiner's Fire (Tebi and me leading morning devotion music)



Hakuna Mungu Kama Wewe "There is no God like You" (Tebi and me leading morning devotion music)



Atooity Top (me leading an in-betweenie at a school in Lodwar)

Since blogging about Lodwar, a few more stories have come to mind that I think are important to share. 

First off, I ended up preaching three times in one week in Lodwar which is the most I've ever preached in one week to date (besides to myself).  The second sermon went the best (which is when I was asked to preach to the group of 150ish missioners that had come with AEE from the Nairobi area).  The final sermon was the Sunday that we left for our 22 hour ride home.  Nothing like preaching a good ole sermon then hopping in the bus for a "short" drive.  I have decided that I am going to miss having my sermons translated because it gives me time to think between sentences, I like that... maybe I'll just pretend...

Story number two - I was asleep on our bus ride home from Lodwar when I awoke to a women talking very loudly from the back of the bus at 5 AM.  Tebi, who was asleep next to me, woke up too.  It was in Swahili and I was really tired so I did not know what was going on, but I had a guess.  I asked Tebi, "Is that woman preaching?"  Tebi simply said, "Yes."  I started laughing and said, "You guys are crazy." (in a playful tone)  Tebi looked confused and said, "why?"  Here in, ends story number two.

The third story - our bus had been going for around 20 hours which means that your typical person from the States would not be in the best mood because we had been in a bus for 20 hours and were told that it would "only" take 16 hours or so.  Well, Kenyans are not your typical person from the States thankfully because at 20 hours, instead of being frustrated, they started to sing hymns for the last two hours of our ride with smiles on their faces.  I was jealous because I was not in the singing mood, but they brought me over to the good side after a few good ole hymns, "What a friend we have in Jesus..."

Our YAV year is winding down and so it was time for our closing retreat.  Ideas and thoughts had bounced around for quite some time, but it was eventually decided that we would go to Jinja, Uganda to raft the source of the Nile.  So, the seven of us hopped in a bus for twelve hours and found ourselves doing just that the next morning.

The Seven Kenya YAVs before:


I had crossed over the Nile during my visit to Kampala, Uganda with Cosmas in December and was awe struck by it.  Then in Cairo in January I crossed the Nile more times than I could count, but I had never been "in" the Nile so I was excited for the opportunity.  You only live once.

Our group of seven has grown accustom to being told what to do and then doing it without question which made for good Nile rafters.  I was very happy that everyone was willing and able to participate.  We found our helmets and life jackets and headed down the Nile with our Ugandan guide, Jeff.  Our favorite quote that Jeff kept repeating was, "And just enjoy the Nile."  It was what he said previous to that statement that made it funny.  Jeff would say, "When you find that the raft has flipped and you're under it, reach around, find the sides of the raft, pull yourself out, lean back, grab onto your life jacket, and just enjoy the Nile."  Awesome.

We flipped collectively, as a raft, twice, but individually we found ways to make our way out of the raft as well.  We went down eight big rapids that were all class four and class five.  Class five is the highest level that rafts can go on, but the classes go up to seven which only kayaks can go down.

As I said, we've become very good at taking orders and following them which resulted in some really entertaining bo-jazz.  Story number one, Jeff would say wave at the camera and we would all turn and wave to the camera not realizing that the camera's presence meant that we were getting ready to go down something that was worthy of being photographed.  Therefore, after Jeff would tell us to wave, a second later he would say, "Get down!" which means that you turn back to back bending down in the raft while holding onto the rope for dear life... "and then just enjoy the Nile."

This is what happened:









Story number two, Jeff would tell us to paddle hard and so we would... not asking what we were paddling to.  Turns out one time we were paddling toward a waterfall, so if we paddled hard we would get to go down a waterfall and if we didn't rapids.  We paddled hard because we were told to do so and were the only group out of the three to go down the waterfall... backwards.  Awesome.

Going down the waterfall backwards:












Flip Number Two








I spliced together a very short video from our rafting experience:


This was my favorite touristy thing that I've done in Africa so far.  I'm a very outdoors adventure kind of person.  I think being with my six good friends for the last time in Africa made it even better.  As Dave Matthews says, "Turns out not where, but who you're with that really matters," however, I would argue that where you are can definitely add to the experience as it did in this case.

To view all of the photos click here.

Seven Rapids and One Waterfall later we decided to just enjoy the Nile:

The Long Bumpy Beautiful Road to Lodwar:


AEE's Male Accommodations (I read two books sitting on that amazing front porch):


Trash Pick-Up Our First Saturday (Read Week 43):


Trash Burning (read Week 43):



Lunch Everyday - Beans, Potatoes, and Cabbage - Napenda cabbage! (I like cabbage!)


I went to ten schools in Lodwar to teach Discipline, Time Management, and talk about Jesus.  Only one of the schools had an indoor room big enough to hold all of the students.  At the other schools, all of the students would gather together in one big group outside and then the head teacher would assign each class a tree to go sit under and that is where we had our classes.  I really enjoyed teaching in the schools (as I always do) and found the Lodwar students were more attentive than my students in Nairobi (probably because it was one class and they are in the middle of nowhere and not used to visitors).

Leading Music at Lodwar Primary School:


Leading a Discussion about being Disciplined in Time Management:


Talking about Discipline and Time Management with John translating for me:


Traditional Turkana Female Dress - the rural women all wore beautiful beads that covered their entire necks:


My 4th of July was very nice and relaxing.  I finished reading The Winter of our Discontent by John Steinbeck which I thoroughly enjoyed after finishing The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho the day before which I also really enjoyed and found as a very motivational read.  In the afternoon, I went to a large open air rally in Lodwar.  Afterwards, I headed back to where Clara the Oklahoman had been staying for dinner.  It was beautiful out as the sky was pitch dark and the company was extremely pleasant.  After eating, Clara and I blessed our host with an interesting rendition of the Star Spangled Banner with my firework sound effects rounding off our beautiful voices.  There isn't any power where we were and people live very close together so they got to hear our national anthem.  Then our host sang us the Kenyan national anthem and some Jesus songs in Turkana.  It was a very pleasant evening.

4th of July with Clara's host family in Lodwar:


What it's like for me when I sit down anywhere public in Lodwar:


Clara and me in front of Mzungu Super Traders:



Clara and me in front of Mzungu Super Traders: (note my Maasai and Turkana little stool that I bought, all the men carry one and a staff)


William Muchiri (my AEE boss) and me:


Our second Sunday eventually came and it was time for us to leave.  We had a final open air meeting scheduled Sunday afternoon, but there were some demonstrations in town and it was canceled.  So, at 7:30 PM our two buses left for Nairobi, one bus was a church bus and the other was a big charter bus.  Needless to say, the charter bus charged through the night and made it to Nairobi at 11 AM the next morning.  However, the good ole church bus I was on was a lot slower in all possible ways and didn't arrive back to Nairobi until around 5 PM.  So, I was a bit tuckered out, but there was no time to rest because I was supposed to be on another bus by 6:45 AM the next morning to Uganda.  I repacked at AEE, took a cab two hours later to Westlands, fell asleep, woke up and hopped on another bus for a 12 hour ride.  Yeehaw!

Crossing the Equator in the bus: