Kiria Day 1

Day one in the community! A two hour bus ride on some of the worst roads I have EVER driven on. It was raining like nobodies business. I mean water gushing down the sides of the roads and in spots through the roads. The further from town and the closer to the community we got, the worse the roads. We only pulled one vehicle out of the ditch full of mud and we only got stuck once. The whole drive kids would wave to us. It is mind blowing how much joy I felt from just waving. I will always remember those beautiful smiles. When we pulled into Kiria there was a group waiting for us. As everyone was unloading off the bus, the community members began singing to us. They sang and sang. It was heart warming; their songs of welcome and praise gave me goosebumps. When then met people, sang, danced, and got to know each other. We also took a crazy hike up the mountain and into the forest (past the electric fences that keep out the elephants and other wild things) up to see the source of the communities water in the Aberdare mountains. Before the 410 partnered with Kiria the people would make this 2k hike ten to twenty times a day.

It is difficult to see people living with so little but empowering and inspiring to see how happy they are with what they have. One man said to me today, "God is big. He is so big that he brought all of you to meet me. God is big." Wow. God is a big guy and I'm glad to be fighting in his corner. With all of the rain/mud from today and a forecast of more rain we made a pit stop to buy everyone rubber boots. What an experience. First of all there are 16 of us marching into this "hardware store", plus none of us know what size boots we wear with their sizes, plus we are all covered in mud. Hays I'm sure we were a sight to see. Tomorrow we start working on the roads and doing some home visits. Thank you everyone for your thoughts and prayers!! Please keep them coming! Tasha