To Kenya

Welcome family and friends all over.

I am glad you found my blog! I have not left for Kenya yet. One week to go. I fly out September 16th. I hope you can find time within the next 3 months to check up on life in Kenya. I am honored to have the grade 4's of Gateway Christian school keep an eye on my travels, learn about Kenya and pray for me. Thanks, guys!

First let me say that I feel so very blessed to have recieved this opportunity to go live and learn in Kenya with an amazing Kenyan woman named Fidelis Wainiana. Fidelis is the founder of the Maseno Interchristian Child Self Help Group (MICH), and has served on the international council of the Micah Challenge campaign from its inception in 2004. I will be working alongside her and learning about her NGO and how it is working towards the Millennium development goals (http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/). MICH works to support orphans and street children at risk due to hunger, poverty and specifically HIV/AIDS. Fidelis works at village level to enable families led by widows or orphans to continue to farm their land and cater for themselves in a sustainable way.

This internship opportunity has all come up so fast! I would like to thank Jamie and Roy Berkenbosch for initiating this internship last January when Fidelis came to speak at the Kings' Inter-disciplinary conference. Thanks also to Heather Gilker for helping organize things with me in such a small amount of time.

With only 7 days before I leave for Kenya I'm feeling fairly ready. I've been under a bit of stress lately though as I was not registered into the necessary internship training that was in Calgary last week so I need to go take it in St. Johns, Newfoundland. I can't complain about anything other than timing though since I'm getting flown to Newfoundland and staying in a nice bed and breakfast with some other CIDA interns! So I'm packed and ready to go tomorrow morning! I've always wanted to check go that far out east. I will get home Wednesday night and have a few days at home (with my folks) to make all the final preparations for Kenya!

I don't know what else I could tell you with conviction. I will later post my travel itinerary and maybe some pictures of beautiful Newfoundland.

I will leave you with the quote that has been on my mind a lot as I ponder my coming position as I wealthy-white visitor to Kenya. After previous mission trips, various conversations and Roy's class at King's called "a conspiracy of goodness: theology of world mission", I have struggled with how to best bring about justice and live out God's grace...well.... there is so much more that could be said but we'll leave it for now. I hope to confront these issues in relation to international development and articulate my thoughts on this blog. Lili Watson, an African woman, once said, "If you have come to help us, you are wasting your time. But, if you have come because your liberation is bound up with our liberation, let us work together."

More to come! peace.