Run Data Run - Joytown (Half)Day 12

A quick and uneventful day today as we spent the afternoon "home" at SACDEP to finish spreadsheets and crunch data into graphs and meaningful information.

The team headed to Joytown in the morning like normal for devotionals, which were led by Nicole and I. We focused on 2 Corinthians 12:6-10 and each shared on the idea of Christ's (God's) power being made perfect in our weakness. Nicole expressed how focusing on self iniquities goes nowhere but that serving others brings joy and growth. I shared the Parable of the Cracked Pot which basically expresses the idea that we do not need to be perfect to fulfill God's will and serve others. In fact, God uses our specific weaknesses/cracks for good. We really are all crack pots… :)

The rest of the morning we double checked student demographic information with the Bethany Kids therapists then headed back to SACDEP for a home-base day of working on spreadsheets and stuff.

Other events from the "uneventful" day:

Really good team prayer meeting where we shared a praise about things that made us happy and specific relationships to pray for.
Stuffy nose and sore throat still lingering but feeling better
Prepping power point for pres to high school on Thursday (tomorrow)
Realization that our often quoted Swahili phrase "Ni poa ku chill", which we thought was a super cool 'way to say "I'm cool" or "I'm doing good", is actually and abstinence tag line that contextually means "It's cool to wait". Good thing we haven't been spouting the phrase all over Kenya… oh wait, we have...

Ni poa ku chill!

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Oh the Americans are here. Make spaghetti.

Tuesday and Wednesday passed quickly and easily as we now all adjusted to Kenya time (Goodbye jet lag!) and were back to our Joytown research routine. We knew what had to get done and the time we had to do it in. SACDEP welcomed us back with a Tuesday meal including "American food" aka spaghetti noodles. Just noodles. Haha Thanks, Kenya. We continued our wheelchair research at Joytown Primary School and got to return to the Secondary School (Kenyan High School equivalent) for a second survey time with the students. I realized through this survey that although we are very different, Kenyans and Americans, much is the same. High school students are high school students. They are teenagers. Some with attitudes, most with dreams, and all of them with lives that are just as real and crazy to understand as my own. *Philosophical vent over* Once our survey work was finished, Danielle decided to jump in and join a group of Secondary girls rehearsing songs for an upcoming talen...

Hello again Kenya

After 24 hours of travel to the other side of the world and two days of research work I've finally gathered enough jet-lagged energy (and strong enough wifi) to write this. On Monday, I escaped the thunderstorms, tornadoes, and flooding of Texas on a trans-atlantic flight to London. The team included Professor Rispin, Prof Sasaki and Danielle. 8 hours later, we arrived with time to crawl through layers of Heathrow security and wander, sleepy eyed through the airport to our next gate. By 11am we were on our final 8 hour flight to Nairobi, Kenya. My plane buddies included a Kenyan track runner who's said he's filled up three passports traveling and racing in countries around in the world (completely paid for by sponsors, by the way). And he hasn't even finished college. Why am I in school again? Kidding... sigh... Med school... My second plane buddy was a newly graduated Kenyan-born pharmacist living in Houston. He reminded me how much doctors are needed, especially in ...

And Now Presenting… - Joytown Day 13

Our whirlwind day of presentation (no wheelchair pun intended) began with a formal presentation to the Joytown secondary school (high school) and ended with a true Kenyan-style impromptu pres to the primary students and teachers. We carefully planned a presentation to the high school students, even creating a powerpoint to share with them containing graphs of the finalized data and pictures from the study. We miraculously packed 20+ people and wheelchairs into a computer room of the school library that was really only designed for 10 or so comfortably. We shared our data results and the Tinsley family shared some really encouraging words to the teens/young adults, urging them to realize that they are fearfully and wonderfully made by God for great purposes in this world. After exchanging contact information with one of the head-teachers who organized the high school participation in our study, (once she had told us about three different ways about the high school exchange progra...

Redhead Steps Around the World

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