Day 1: Saturday, June 18

We began our first day in Kenya with a wonderful breakfast! The fruit here is incredible! We then had the privilege to hear from a woman doing wonderful work with orphans in the city of Nairobi. Robyn Moore works with an organization called The Least of These, based on the verse Matthew 25:49. She is a nurse who serves over 1000 orphans in Nairobi, working to provide medical care and food as well as reaching out to them spiritually. She shared with us some of her amazing and sometimes heartbreaking stories. She discussed the improvements in treatment for children who are HIV positive since the US initiated aid that helps provide treatment. Currently, in a single one of the children's homes where she works, there are twenty children who are HIV positive. There are over two million orphans in Kenya alone. Her passion for working with children and showing them God's love is absolutely amazing. Please keep Robyn and her organization in your prayers as they continue their mission to reach out to these children who are all too often forgotten.
We left the hotel and headed toward Nakuru. It was a very eye opening experience to see our first glimpses of true poverty. The slums of Nairobi included shacks made from whatever people had to build with. At one point they were on both sides of the road and were all we could see. We also passed their markets which involved livestock on the side of the road, in the median, or wherever they could tie them.
As we exited the city area, we began to come upon more rural villages in which people excitedly waved to see white people. We saw our first zebras, Tommy gazelles, and baboons which was VERY exciting!


We drove for what seemed like ages and stopped in the Rift Valley, which was breathtaking! It was incredible how far you could see! I also made my first purchase, which was a sheep skin hat, which the man was making right there where I purchased it. Very fun!
We continued on pretty smooth roads as we headed toward the AGC Baby Center, which was an amazing experience!


After we left the baby center to head toward the market, a huge storm came up, which was unfortunate since our luggage was on the top of the bus uncovered. We got to the market and only a few of us braved the storm and the vendors at the market. We are certain that they saw dollar signs as we drove up. It was a stressful experience to be pulled one way and another by hands that we did not know. I did make some excellent purchases, but Bryan informed me that I need to work on my haggling. We ran across the street to a hotel to wait for the bus to return. In a hilarious series of events, a member of our group that we did not realize had gotten off the bus was reunited with us by the vendors. Apparently one of the merchants was trying to sell him a bracelet and he said he would need his wife for that. They said "Oh your wife is across the street, we saw her!" (which she was not) and they brought him to us. We all got a great laugh out of that. We then bought Sprites in the hotel restaurant, which tasted amazing! Jane failed to inform us to return the bottles and we were chased down by hotel security when we tried to leave with them.
We finally made it to our TINY hotel room and slept very well after a long and exhausting day!


Morgan

Kenya!

Well we finally made it to Kenya last night! With the assistance of the Justin Beiber movie and some episodes of Friends and Glee, Sarah and I made it through the second flight without sleeping much so we could get on Africa time! This flight seemed a lot smoother than the last one and it was on a HUGE plane! We arrived at the airport at about nine pm or so. We quickly found the people in Kenya to be very friendly! The bathroom attendant, Purity, really started off our time in Kenya wonderfully! She was telling us all about the country and how "cold" it has been. Apparently cold = amazing temperature here! It feels amazing out!

We were surprised that the city was as nice as it was. I guess we did not know what to expect. There are palm trees! The driving here is CRAZY! I am pretty sure we barely made it out of the parking lot alive! However, our driver Peter is so nice and we could not have gotten a better driver. Speaking of the bus. I will upload a picture when I can, but picture a small HHS with luggage piled two suitcase high all over the top! It was a huge feat of engineering to get all the bags on there. Thank goodness we had an engineer or two!

Our hotel for last night was so nice! We thought the beds were comfy, but we may have just been running on two days with no sleep. Today our plan is to eat breakfast and head to Nakuru to the baby home. We should get to spend some good time with the babies today. We will get done early today since our jet lag should kick in this afternoon. I am so excited to learn more about the country and it's people! I will post pics asap, but we do not have a great signal here so they won't post.

Keep us in your prayers!


Morgan

Made it to Amsterdam

Hello! We have completed the first leg of our travels and are now in the airport in Amsterdam!

Morgan

Trip Schedule

Thursday June 16: Fly from Atlanta to Amsterdam to Nairobi, Kenya
We should hopefully arrive around 9pm local time on Friday!

Friday June 17: 8:15pm Arrive in Nairobi, Kenya

Saturday June 18: Travel to Nakuru to visit AGC Baby Home and deliver supplies
www.agcbabycenter.org

Sunday June 19: Lake Nakuru Game Drive and lunch at the game park
Stay at Tenwek

Monday June 20- Saturday June 25: Construction project at the orphanage
We are working on a kitchen, painting, doing electrical wiring (not me obviously!), replacing windows, and doing various other construction projects!
We will also be visiting the local school and doing VBS.
Each night will include dinner where we are staying and a team meeting.

Sunday June 26: Church in Tenwek
Free afternoon!

Monday June 27- Tuesday June 28: Construction work etc at orphanage.

Wednesday June 29- Thursday June 30: Maasai Mara Game Reserve!!
Google this- it looks AMAZING!

Friday July 1: Leave game park after morning game drive and breakfast
Maasai market
Afternoon still up for debate

Saturday July 2: Leave for airport and head back to the US (and back to Alex and Daisy and Mister)

I hope to do lots of picture taking and updating!!

Morgan

A Barnett Blog

I am venturing into the foreign world of blogging to document my upcoming trip to Kenya!  I am excited to let you in on my experiences in Africa over this blog.  I hope that I am able to share the exciting adventure of going to Africa (safaris and such), but also the spiritual journey that I know awaits me.  Please keep our team and all that we will minister to in your prayers!  Our longgggggg journey begins in Winchester on Thursday morning.  From Winchester, we will drive to Atlanta to fly to Amsterdam then to Nairobi.  I think we calculated that it is about 20 hours worth of flying. This is the part of the trip that kept Alex at home this time, but I am hoping we can take an adventure together sometime! 

A big thank you goes out to all who have supported this mission both in prayers and donations.  We packed twelve 50 pound suitcases full of peanut butter and clothes for the baby home and orphanage!  I wish I had the picture to share of Alex on the scale weighing all the bags- he is very good at guessing how much a bag weighs now! :)  We were also so blessed by all of those who attended fundraisers and gave monetary donations!  And a huge thank you to Deby who lent me her old camera, with which I hope to take some amazing pictures!  Also a thank you to Alex for all the love and support and for driving our bags to Atlanta for us and hopefully coming back to get us when we get back, although some doubt still remains as he may enjoy a quieter house! :)

My mom and I spent three hours packing this morning.  And I can officially say that after eleven long dresses, five long skirts, 16 t shirts, a giant box of cliff bars, about a year's worth of bug spray and sun screen (thanks mom!), tennis shoes, a box full of medicine, and other things that I deemed "absolutely necessary" my checked bag is packed and weighs less than 50 pounds!  After some doubt from the men in the house, my carry ons are packed and EVERYTHING fit- even my soft blanket for the plane ride. 

Your prayer and support is very much appreciated! I hope to update every few days.  We will have limited Internet access so it may be less frequent, but I promise not to leave any details out!  I will post a more detailed itinerary sometime before we leave.

Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight.
Proverbs 3:5-6

Morgan