Redhead Steps Around the World

Headed to Joytown like normal (for the last time) to be part of devos. Fridays have become my favorite devo day because its praise day! We stood in a group singing hymns, worship songs, and African chorus. After devos, we passed out daily inspiration desk-top calendars to all the therapists as a thank you and encouragement. The booklets worked out perfectly as they turned into sort of yearbooks with everybody walking around shaking hands and getting the team's email and facebook info.   The rest of the morning we continued working on data spreadsheets in our "chapel" work area with a few extra curious faces peering into windows and coming to visit us at our computers. Favorite high-lights of the day: Continuing to hone my wheelie skills Watching a news camera crew and their filming of the dance group performing a song and dance in costume Wonderful time at lunch laughing and spending time with people Teaching Elizabeth, woman who's been cooking lunch f...

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...

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...

Today I woke up with the Rocky theme song stuck in my head. Well not exactly, but that was the general feeling among the team as we went over our plans for the day of mass data collection. We each had our subjects divided up onto lists and were partnered up with a "people-fetcher" whose job it would be to bring kids from their classes to the research area. All of the kids who were subjects for the original wheelchair skills testing would be called back to test the standard "China chair" on rough ground only, a 6-minute rolling test. After devos, the first subjects arrived and off we went into a morning of perpetual circles around the school dirt road. 10 names stared at me from my list in the morning and by tea time only 5 remained. After lunch I finished off the last 2 subjects and loaded the last of my heart-rate data. I looked up from the computer to realize we had done it! And with relative peace and ease! A day that I expected to be totally frantic and cra...

Sunday evening I began to feel the unwelcome symptoms of either really bad allergies (which I never tend to have) or a cold: sore throat, itchy eyes, stuffy/runny nose, and a general "cloudy-ness". As the evening wore on I felt even worse until I finally forced myself to crawl into bed. This morning I woke up feeling better but my nose and throat were still not cooperating. We headed to Joytown to complete what we estimated as our LAST DAY of data collection! Each of us had only two or three subjects to see and complete wheelchair skills tests with. We had our plan set out for the week as far as what needed to be accomplished with data and presentations. Everything was packed away neatly and on track. But, of course, Kenya (and research) happens... Singing and devos went by swiftly as we were all assigned in pairs to summarize and comment on a specific chapter of Hebrews. After devos, Ms. Rispin called us four students to a mini-pow wow about something new and urgen...

Waking up at 6:00am is a lot easier when you are waking up to the sun rising brilliantly over majestic Mt. Kenya and your own personal watering hole scene. Waking up this way set the tone for a whole day of awesome sights. By 6:30 we were heading out across savannah roads on a second game drive. The day's amazing moments started with stumbling across a family of elephants feeding along the roadside. We originally only saw three little baby elephants munching away until momma elephant emerged from the bushes and began marching slowly and intensely toward our car, flapping her ears as a not-so-subtle warning to back off. Other amazing moments: Taking time to watch a family troupe of baboons as they wrestled, danced around, and groomed each other, eager for picked-tick snacks. Visiting Kenya's only chimpanzee sanctuary that was started by Jane Goodall herself. We were introduced to a major portion of our hairy genetic relatives by one of their caretakers who expla...

When we set off this morning at 7:30am from Thika to visit Ol Pajeta Nature Conservatory for the weekend, I didn't know that we'd be visiting heaven! Four hours later, we pulled up to Sweetwaters, a tent resort. After being welcomed with cold hand towels and fresh fruit juice, we were paired up and led to different tent "rooms" that look out onto sprawling savannah land stretched beneath Mt. Kenya complete with zebra, waterbuck, warthogs and a watering hole. After settling in to our incredible home for the night, we set out in our pop-top vans to go see the animals. Highlights from the day include: Crossing the equator! Several times… Fighting off the highway souvenir vendors at the equator which at one point were attempting to hook me into their shop by offing to trade items for my pony tail holder. Watching a pride of lionesses lounging in the sun together. Loosing a spare tire off the back of one of our vans and watching driver Joseph get out and stick i...