# A trio of travellers
Chased some cockroaches…learned a little Swahili…were blessed by our visit to Kenya!
Karen, Alastair and Ros’s visit to Kindfund, 2013
There was a sea of excited faces to greet us on our arrival at the Kindfund children’s home in Ngaremara on the evening of Sunday 7 July; and straightaway that night we had a fellowship time where the children sang a wonderful welcome!
It had been a long journey, leaving Dublin the previous morning and travelling to Nairobi via Abu Dhabi. There we were met by Josef the taxi driver, and as he expertly navigated the potholes we sat back and adjusted to being ‘on the ground’ in Kenya. We had plenty of time as we headed north, crossing the Equator; the journey was going to take five hours!
But after a day to catch our breath, we headed north to spend a full week in Wamba children’s home before returning to Ngaremara for week two.
The real highlight was getting to meet the children! There are so many sad stories and many difficult backgrounds to comprehend, but the lasting impression you get when you spend time in the homes is that you are surrounded by happy children who are learning to walk with Jesus.
We devoted a lot of our time to simply playing with the children; we learned a little Swahili (enough to count up to twenty at any rate); we each got our hair plaited (they even had a go at Alastair’s!); we sang songs with them (though they sing a lot better than we ever will); we took studies and the children would often ask for torches so that they could continue working after dark. It was such a blessing to see the difference that Kindfund is making in the lives of these youngsters.
There were a few things in Kenya that took a bit of getting used to. Like the daily shower with two temperature settings – cold and colder. There were cockroaches of course, which the children could catch and put out in an instant, while Karen and Ros appeared to think that screaming would help. Why?!
Mercifully the only snake we came across was a dead one; it seems that the four foot adder kindly waited until we had left before visiting Ngaremara! But the journey to Wamba took us through the Samburu Nature Reserve where we got to see elephants, giraffes, monkeys, baboons, dik dik, ostrich, gazelles, zebras, camels, crocodiles, vultures, weaver birds, warthogs, gerenuk…and squirrels too!
We were introduced to the bride at a traditional Turkana wedding, then ushered into the food tent where the women were skinning a cow. While the women worked, the men danced! And we’ll never forget Sunday morning worship in Ngaremara…the children sang and danced in a two hour praise party!
If you ever have the opportunity to visit Kenya…make sure you do. It is an amazing country and the memories will be with you forever!
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