Day One

Technically this was day three on our trip. We spent most of Saturday and Sunday traveling, so I don’t count those. Anyway, Monday we spent time in Kibera, one of the largest slums in sub-Saharan Africa. It is roughly the size of Central Park in New York City, but it is home to over one million people. We visited a Compassion project in a church on the outskirts of the slum. The children greeted us with songs and dances and presentation. They were so into it and had memorized a ton of scripture and poetry and songs for us.

From there, we split up into four groups to do home visits. I got to visit with Loice (7th picture, pink sweatshirt) and her family. She was a rare case because her mother and father were still married and living together in her home. They were also very interested and involved in her life, which is often not the case with children in this area. It was really cool to see the sacrifices and effort that her parents had put forth to help her achieve the kind of future she wanted. That was really encouraging. However, her family had lost everything, their home, all their possessions, and their livelihood, in the post-election riots in 2007. There was a lot of violence, especially in Kibera, and some huge fires. In fact, the church we visited had been burned to the ground completely and was still doing construction to get their facilities back. The coolest thing about that was that no matter who you talked to in the church about it, they all spoke of what a blessing it had been. They were focused on God’s plan and didn’t get caught up in losing so much–even when they had so little. Definitely something to learn from.

Another cool thing that happened on Monday was that a lot of our team members got to meet the Compassion children that they sponsor. While I was not among them, it was still an awesome thing to watch. A lot of people are skeptical about organizations like Compassion, but I can tell you first-hand that it is legit. These kids are real, and these sponsorships really do change their lives. You can see evidence of that on the faces of all their parents when they meet a person who has provided a future for their child. Everyone should want to be a part of that.

They didn’t want us to take pictures of the slums because people don’t really like it, so I don’t have any of those. Also, I apologize in advance for my less-than-stellar photography skills. Everyone has a skill set, it is not in mine. Anyway, here are some more pictures of day one:

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