Whenever I return from a trip, I try to get it out of my head and onto paper as soon as possible. I just spent the past two weeks in Kenya, Africa, with 7 women who are all life coaches and business women with a desire to serve and give back to the world. Our objective: to teach Ideal LifeVision workshops to the people of Kenya. To say that it was life-changing is truly an understatement. In fact, I am hoping that by writing out my thoughts, feelings, and experiences, that I will actually be able to process what I just experienced.
Day One – Arriving in Nairobi
Our trip started with meeting at the airport at 6:15am in order to catch a flight to L.A. With at least a dozen suitcases between us, not including carry-on bags, we were a sight to behold. Our suitcases were full of medical supplies, hygiene kits, toys for kids, workbooks, pencils, and snacks for us. There was a great deal of shuffling once we got to the airport to make sure we were all under the weight limit.
When we arrived in L.A., we had to do the same thing all over again! It turned out that we had too much weight for our carry-on bags. Have you ever heard of such a thing? We hadn’t. So we shuffled even more around and then snuck past the tiger lady who wanted us to pay $300 each for the extra weight. Good grief. Our flight to Amsterdam was uneventful, and we met up with Angella and Misty for our final flight to Nairobi.
I have to backtrack a little bit. Leaving home was not easy. I cried a lot, knowing that I wouldn’t see my family for two weeks. It was especially bad when I was hugging my little girl, who was crying, too. I knew that going to Kenya would be something I could share with my kids, but it was a challenge during that moment, and I questioned why on earth I was going on the other side of the world. Today I know exactly why I was there and am so grateful that I jumped outside of my comfort zone to do it. In fact, I can’t wait to go back!
We arrived in Nairobi late, and had to go through customs, get our visa, and meet Suchi, who was our guide for part of our trip. Fortunately, we didn’t get stopped at customs and found him right away. Another one of our Kenya Ideal LifeVision coaches, Christine, was there to meet us. I had connected with Christine on Facebook, so I felt like I was greeting a friend. We piled our luggage and ourselves in the van and headed through the city. My first impression of Nairobi was that it was just another big city. The next day I realized I was in a developing country.
We met a man for breakfast named Jeff Nthiwa, who is a pastor and life coach in Kenya. It was interesting to talk with him and get a different perspective. We didn’t stay too long, because we had to go and exchange dollars into Kenyan shillings, and then get back to the hotel to get to the airport and fly to Kisumu. The crazy thing was, our driver didn’t show up for an hour. Even crazier, when we got to the airport our plane had left…half an hour early!
Needless to say, we weren’t thrilled about waiting four hours for the next flight, but Ann got the airline to pay for our lunch. The rest of the time we relaxed and discussed the meaning of life…