Vicki's Kenya Mission Journal

Thanks to Vicki Pate who allowed us to reprint her journal entries.

We left Jackson around 10am Thursday. Jerry & John drove me to the church and stayed until I got on the bus. Wednesday evening, John told me he was proud of me for going to Africa. He said he thinks God really wants me to do this. I could tell Jerry was a bit nervous about it, but he was still supportive. I'm going to miss them both terribly -- we've never been apart for 2 weeks before. The trip itself couldn't have gone more smoothly. Mark Benton says this is his 6th trip and this is the fastest it has ever gone. He says God is smiling on us and we did praise Him for it. We drove to Memphis, flew about 2.5 hours(?) to Detroit. There, we had just enough time to eat at Fudruckers. Then we got on our next plane to Amsterdam. I sat next to a young fellow named Jordan who was going with a missionary group to Uganda. He stated they would be hiking the last 20 miles to their destination and would be staying for 2 months. The flight to Amsterdam was about 8 hours. We were told to try to sleep, but I did well to doze a little off and on. When we got to Amsterdam we only had 1 hr & 15 minutes til our next flight left and they like to board us early. On THAT flight I sat next to a pastor from Maine. He was with a group who were going to teach in Nairobi and Mumbasa. The food on this flight was African -- they use different spices than we do. Some of it was good. That flight was about 8 hrs. I was SUPPOSED to try to stay awake on that flight, but that is when I actually slept. Oh, well. It will work itself out. The place we are staying in Nairobi is very nice. I was able to send a FB message to several back home to let them know we arrived safely and had smooth travel. It is now 4am Saturday morning and I've been awake since 2am. They start serving breakfast near the pool at 5:30am. I'm hungry and looking forward to that! :-)

Breakfast was great. While I waited for my roommate to get ready, I went out by the pool. The air was crisp and cool, and the birds were singing out praises. It was still dark. I rolled up my blue jeans and dangled my feet in the water. I then quietly joined the birds in a chorus of "Baba Yetu" (Our Father/The Lord's Prayer song in Swahili -- God allowed me to learn this before we came). When Kate was ready, we went down to the restaurant/cabana and joined some of our teammates. I enjoyed fresh pineapple, mango, watermelon, a Spanish omelet and passion fruit juice. It was perfectly topped off with piped-in music -- especially when "My Redeemer Lives" played! We leave in 1.5 hrs for our all-day drive in the Great Rift Valley to get to Eldoret where we'll stay tonight.

Sunday - We left Nairobi yesterday morning & arrived in Eldoret around 6:30pm. The drive/scenery was GREAT. We even saw baboons and zebras on the side of the road. They drive on the left side of the road here. We had 4 vans full of people. Our van had something break underneath one time and a flat tire another time, but the drivers were so prepared and we were back on the road in no time. I tried not to sleep, but couldn't help myself in the afternoon. The temperatures were very unpredictable. We are at a very high altitude and we were driving through clouds. When we were in a cloud, it could get pretty cold, but when it was clear, the sun was SOOO hot! We are driving to Mariann School this morning and hope to be there in time for worship. Mark and Melody have said THAT is when the good stuff starts! :-)

We arrived at Mariann School around 10:15am yesterday. OH MY WORD! There is not enough room in this journal to write it all! The children and adults were all lining the sides of the drive and singing and clapping when we arrived. They also had music and some kind of greeting playing over the speaker. Some of the adults came over and started meeting us. We then went through the line of kids and adults and greeted each one with "chamaga" or simply "hello". It was all very formal and respectful -- designed to honor us, and it did! We then offloaded the vans and went straight to worship service. The whole greeting/arrival and worship service were very emotional and most of us were wiping our eyes at one point or another - and not just the women! The kids are SOOO sweet and eager to meet us. The younger ones want to play and giggle just like any other kids -- sweet, sweet, sweet! One thing I have noticed since we've been here is that there do not seem to be any "type A" Kenyans :-). I visited the girls dorms. The girls showed me their beds and talked about the mosquitos and rats that roam at night. I got an invitation to spend the night, but Mark says it would be better to do that later in the week, so I didn't do that last night. We also walked to the watering hole and met some new people who live on the path.

Yesterday, the men started building on the tables and benches. The benches look great but they were quite frustrated with the tables. The wood is very green and uneven, making it difficult to get the quality they wanted. A little girl named Fioli asked Terri, Jennifer, and I to come see her home. We thought she wanted to show us her bed in the girls' dorm, but we were wrong. We walked about 45 minutes to an hour into the hills and met her grandmother, uncle, sister, and brother. The houses are made of mud and/or thatch, and we saw cows and people working their fields. We finally realized that her house was going to be very far away and we had not told anyone where we were going. We finally had to tell her that we had to go back to the school, but we will try to go later this week. It is amazing to me that this young girl walks so far every morning and afternoon to get to school!

Tuesday -- The school did not hold classes yesterday because it was a national independence holiday. Today, there are no classes because many of the children have gone to town for a national dance competition. Some of our group went with them to watch. It was a bit cool yesterday and last night, but it is sunny and hot today. I played Frisbee with a big group of kids earlier and we wound up sitting in the grass and just talking. They asked me questions about America and I asked them questions about Kenya. We saw an airplane go by in the distance and Shamir said we will see a very big one go over tomorrow. Most of the group is sleeping better now. I am really enjoying getting to know Melody. She prays about everything and has such a beautiful spirit. She is a good example for me.

Wednesday -- The girls and the boys both won first place in the competition yesterday! They also performed together and won 3rd, which is enough to go to the next level! The girls got home after dark and you should have seen the celebration when they got home! FUN! Bwana asifiwe! (Praise God!) We all ran to the gate and lined up in the formal greeting style. They, and we, were singing and clapping in celebration! They unloaded from the truck and were dancing and clapping and singing! Then we all piled into one of the classrooms and sang/clapped/danced some more. Then one of the teachers came in and made some remarks. His words were so tender and loving, yet he retained his authority. He told him that he had no words to describe his joy for them. It is so sweet to see the love of the teachers/leaders for these kids. Mark was able to get a new saw in town yesterday, although he had to be gone almost all day. But this morning the brand new generator quit working! He is very frustrated and seems to be under some testing right now. There was a little boy standing in the yard today crying and holding his hand over his eye. Several of us were trying to help him. We held him and poured water in his eye to try to wash out anything that might be in there, but nothing helped. I finally just picked him up, put his head on my shoulder, and hummed while walking/rocking him. His cries finally got softer and softer, and he fell asleep. I started crying. First - because I thought about how many times he has cried and didn't have his momma there to hold him, and second - tears of joy because God allowed me to be here and to hold him THIS time.

Thursday -- I had the most WONDERFUL time last night with Vivian (one of the teachers)! After supper, she and another lady were sitting outside in the dark. I had asked her previously if I could sing the Lord's Prayer to her to make sure the words and my pronunciation were correct (she teaches Kiswahili). She invited me to sit with them and do that. They scooted apart just enough to put me in the middle -- hip to hip/shoulder to shoulder. I sang the song and they chimed in about half way through. We finished singing our praises together under the African stars with a big "Aaaa-min-aaaa"! They each grabbed one of my hands at the end and said it was correct. They were so excited for me! Then we sat and talked for about another 45 minutes or so. Vivian's fiance lives in Iowa. She wants to come join him in September, get married, go to school to become a nurse, have 2 kids (she comes from a family of 8 kids), and live in America. She says she will invite me to the wedding, and I told her I would find a way to get there. She told me that they will miss us when we leave. I told her that I will miss them, too, but I am trying not to think about it yet. When I got back to the house, most of the Jackson team were playing cards, and I joined them. We were all tired and silly -- it was fun.

Saturday -- We passed out the Pen Pal letters yesterday. The kids enjoyed that SO MUCH! Many of the adults wanted one, too. We had some left over, so we started with Class 8 and started handing out "seconds". Some of the Class 8 students went with us to the younger classes and helped them with their letters also. Caroline especially was eager to help. She is in Class 8 and is the lead singer in the girls' program. A very beautiful girl and says she wants to be a "musician"/singer some day. She wrote two letters of her own and helped probably 20-30 students in the lower classes to write theirs. Last night we gathered in the classroom after supper and sang with the students until bed time. Macy brought Anita to me and said she had been crying. I picked her up and took her outside, but she insisted she was ok. She didn't want me to put her down, though, and she fell asleep in my arms. That just gets to me, and the tears started flowing again. She is such a little ray of sunshine and I will miss her very much when we leave. Some of the Harding group went down the street a few miles to a school where the kids had never seen white people before! It sounds like that was quite an experience! Today is our last full day here. We have VBS this morning, "Visitor Day" this afternoon (when all of the parents come to visit their kids), and apparently there will be a big send-off dinner for us tonight.

Sunday -- VBS went well. All the kids enjoyed it. Many of the parents were coming and going during mid-day. After lunch, the Jackson group split in half -- half went to visit in the home of Puis and the other half went to visit Joseph and Mary's house. Puis has several children and we met many of them and his wife. She prepared chipote, hot chocolate, chai, and coffee for us. It was interesting to see that he has a television and a light bulb in his living room/eating room. They are powered by a D-cell battery that he charges with solar energy. Before supper, several of us went into the classroom by the girls' dorms and sang with the pupils. The kids LOVE to sing, and all of the songs are praises to God. This time it was Faith who fell asleep in my arms. I would be so happy if I could just get a job holding these kids in my arms and letting them fall asleep :-). The farewell dinner was very, very nice. Most of the administrators/leaders stood up to say a few farewell words to us. Then Mark Benton, Scott, and Mark Watson got up as representatives from our group to say farewell in return. This morning, we had our last worship service at Mariann. We were all pretty sad knowing that we were only a few hours from leaving. Joan came up to say good-bye before worship and started crying -- she is probably about 14 years old. The teachers also teared up. I sat with Faith and Anita in church and they were loving all over me. Our buses arrived while we were still in the service, and Anita jumped up and took notice. Then she grabbed my arm so tightly and put her head against it. After church, we greeted in a line as we did last Sunday. We ate a quick lunch and loaded up the vans. Faith and Anita were right there beside me every chance they got, and as it got time to load onto the buses, they started grabbing my arms and saying, "No! No!" over and over again. It was so hard to leave. They all lined up at the gate to say goodbye. We drove through them as we left and waved and said goodbye. I have only touched the surface of recording our experience at Mariann, but there are just not enough words or enough pages in this journal to describe it. To sum, I would just say that I have never visited any place where I so constantly and consistently saw such a deep love of/for Jesus. These people's hearts are full of His love, and it is such a beautiful thing! God bless Mariann and be praised for what He has done and continues to do there! We had a pretty pleasant drive to Kericho and are staying in an old British hotel. The scenery today was breathtaking. We leave at 8am for Masi Mara Safari.

Prayer: Lord, if there is anything I take away from this experience, let it be that I will learn to seek you RIGHT NOW, depend on you RIGHT NOW, praise you RIGHT NOW, and pray to you RIGHT NOW -- for the rest of my days. Let me not dwell on regrets or worry about tomorrow. Let me live FOR You and WITH You every moment of every day.


After Mariann, we traveled to Mara Safari Park and stayed two nights. It was gorgeous and so filled with God's various creatures and beauty. Thursday was my 44th birthday. At the close of dinner Wednesday night, Mark and Melody had arranged for the staff to bring me a birthday cake with candles and sing "Happy Birthday". They clapped and sang one song in Swahili on their way to our table -- I just caught the words "Hakuna Matata" (no worries). Then they lit the cake and sang the birthday song in Swahili and I blew out the candles. THEN they sang another song until I cut the cake! After they left, a large group of people from Russia who were seated behind us sang Happy Birthday to me in Russian! Wow! What a birthday!


We are home now. So good to see Jerry, John, Princess, and Grace again. I slept well in my own bed last night. I'm starting to process everything now and will start jotting down random thoughts here.

I am amazed/see that:
- I can walk into my kitchen, turn a knob, and get clean water.
- When I walk the dog like I did this morning, I should be more deliberate when I greet my neighbors. I really wanted to walk up to everyone I saw today, shake their hand, smile, and greet them with "Chamaga!"
- I have so much love to give, but often don't for fear of seeming "weird".
- I eat to PREVENT hunger while others in the world would love a morsel to LESSEN their hunger just a bit. What's wrong with getting hungry once in awhile? Might keep me thankful.

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