So I'm back in the US now!  Landed in San Francisco on Sunday afternoon.  The last couple weeks in Nairobi were very busy with lots of last minute things to do, and many goodbyes.  I finished up my classes at Hamomi, leaving my laptop with the school so that they can continue learning with it.  The last day was very sad and I even got tied up to a post so I couldn't leave.  Basketball threw me a lovely party and I was very appreciative of how much they had welcomed me into their family over the past few months.  Some close friends (council members) and I also had a last night out to celebrate our time together and hold us over until we meet again.  I had one last afternoon selling books with the boys at COI, and a nice party day in Mwiki where we cooked pilau and an epic cake and shared them with neighbors and friends who passed through all day before I headed to the airport.  All in all, a week that made me so thankful for all the wonderful friendships I have in Kenya, yet overwhelming knowing that I'd be leaving them all soon.

Ecclesiastes 1:18- "For with much wisdom comes much sorrow; the more knowledge, the more grief."

This verse explains some of how I feel coming back from Kenya.  Once your eyes are opened to a new world, a new suffering, you can't really go back to how you were before.  You carry that knowledge with you wherever you go, and it influences your very being.  I now have that burden of privilege to deal with, having recognized how blessed (especially materially and with things like the ability to get a visa and move around freely) my life has been, and how disadvantaged many others are.  Instead of drifting idly along living in blissful ignorance of the suffering around me, I have seen, heard, ate, held, and felt poverty.  The people who live in a daily reality many couldn't even imagine are my friends.  They have talked, laughed, and learned with me.  I've made fun of their attempts at using a tiny laptop, while they have been simultaneously snickering at my Swahili.  Now as I'm out making important, life implicating decisions about things like my career etc., I hold the memory of our friendships in my heart, vowing to follow God into a place which enables me to help their situation, giving them access to a better life where they too can have a platform to better spread the joy they so generously shared with me.


Times I realize I just lived in Kenya for 6 months:
- Standing in disbelief and shock when a driver lets me, a pedestrian, cross in front of them
- Can't get enough cheese...
- Good beer tastes like pure gold
- Wanting to go the wrong way around the rotaries
- I'm attention starved walking down the street and not having everyone talk/yell to me
- Not judging each  white person I meet
- I find myself looking down the street for a shop to buy a banana at to no avail
- When I find myself walking longer than I wanted to to get somewhere, telling myself its ok because I can just take a matatu back, so sad realizing that that is not an option here
- Customer service freaks me out a bit
- Instead of ignoring the woman along the road giving her quick one line pitch trying to get me to stop and listen to why I should donate money to her cause,  I extended my hand and shook hers
- I open the mailbox all the time.  Even if its Sunday and I know there is no mail.
- Rushing home like Cinderella, with a curfew of dark that nobody else has/is aware of
- I don't feel rushed at all when meetings go long
- Seeing vendors on the street makes me thankful for the convenience of not having to walk inside a store, not annoyed at their taking up the sidewalk
- Its hard for me to go a whole conversation without having to rethink my words into English
- I'm annoyed to have to go all the way to the store to buy basic foods (yet relieved at how relatively close that same store is for less basic ones)
- I almost don't even put down the toilet seat cause I'm used to none being there
- I constantly regulate the temp of the shower water, even if I get it right the first time

Well it was a wonderful journey back to Kenya, and I look forward to continuing my relationships there and returning again sometime soon.  As I continue to debrief and think about this experience, I might post more insights/funny stories, so keep a look out!  And more photos to come : )