(The first part of the trip report can be found by clicking this link)
Visiting Our Water Source from 2008
It occurred to me that it would be a good idea to go back to the spring that I protected with a team in 2008, my first trip to Kenya. Mishael said it was very doable so we struck out on foot one morning for the site and made it there in 20 minutes or so. What came with it was a flood of memories. When we arrived at the spring, with it's plaque – Uhuru – we came upon a young girl, maybe ten, who was filling two buckets with it's yield. It was good to see the spring was in good shape, and that it's usefulness persisted. It had been seven and a half years since we did our job there. Apart from a little faded paint and such, it continued to function as well as ever. We took her by surprise, as we did most children in Kenya. I think my skin looks fluorescent to them. She was, nonetheless, good humored. After a few pictures and the feeling that someone had just walked over my grave, we surveyed the nearby fields, trees and relatives in the area that Mishael has called home all his life. To have had the experience of protecting this water source in the first place was a huge blessing, and certainly an eye-opening, life altering event. To have been able to visit it again reinforced it's impact afresh. It was almost like visiting a monument from a different age, at least in my life. Continue reading “Kenya Trip Report – Part Two”