Trip Recap – Sandra Everett

Yes, I have been back from Kenya for 6-1/2 weeks, but I needed to process what that trip was to me and when I got ready to share with all of you, I wanted it to deliver some portion of the meaning it had for me.   I don’t want to come across as too dramatic in this email, but each of us who went on this trip have had similar “re-entry” experiences and feelings, so I know that I am not alone.  I am absolutely changed for having gone to Africa, but to go and meet and be loved by those children took any normal travel experience to a whole new level.

First, as you know, I almost didn’t get to go on that trip because my passport literally got back from the Kenyan embassy an hour before I was to meet the team in the airport terminal. My passport had been to Mexico, China and then to Miami for pages to be sewn in and then to DC for my Kenyan visa, all in a matter of 5 weeks.  All the time, I kept telling myself if the trip was meant to be, then I’d go otherwise I wasn’t going to get upset if I missed that flight that day.   I feel now that I went that I was meant to go and if I don’t expand that experience outside of my own mind then I do a discredit to having gone in the first place.

Before I left, I never really thought about all the things we have here.  Simple things, like hot, running water, toilets, safe meals, insects that don’t normally carry pathogens that could kill us, heat, shoes, textbooks, medicine, on and on.  Even down to where we all live, imagine a cow dung hut instead.  That was all until I got back from Africa.  Now I look at every single thing in life with a new set of eyes.  We live like kings in this country, but we are no happier for it than the people I met in Kenya who have none of it.  There was a peace in those people that we all should strive to achieve.  I will never forget the smiles and laughter from the children, just happy because we brought bubbles and blew up balloons for them to throw around their playground.  These kids were so intelligent and they asked us great questions, a thorough desire to learn was in each one of them.  They were everything we should be, they were kind, loving, compassionate, thoughtful, inquisitive, considerate.  Some of them had shoes where the toes were cut out so they could keep wearing them. One boy made a toy out of a water bottle and a string, ran around the playground laughing.  The kids during recess would take a stick and draw shapes in the dirt and play games.  For a soccer ball, they took a bunch of plastic bags and bound them up with string.  I’m telling you all this because seeing how they could make joy out of nothing was one of the key changes that happened in my heart during that trip.  How completely insignificant our so-called troubles really are compared to only getting one meal a day and only getting meat once a week.

So with thanksgiving coming up next week, I wanted to share the sermon from today with you all.  It goes along with my Kenya notes and seems appropriate to share.   I won’t give the whole thing, but the part that ties is that the degradation and disappointment we think we experience in our lives – whether it be inside ourselves or in our relationships with others – is that we are not outwardly grateful for all the things we receive.  I’m not just talking tangible gifts, though gratitude of those things is important too.  I’m talking about all the things that people do for you every day, when they make you feel special, when they make you feel loved, when they think about your feelings, when they say, “sorry sorry” when you trip on a twig like the kids did for us on our hike in the Kenyan mountains near the school.

None of us would ever want to be called ungrateful, but yet that is exactly how we come across when we do not express gratitude to one another.  Unexpressed gratitude communicates ingratitude.  I can’t explain why we have so much “stuff” in America and they have so little in Africa.  I can say that if I had to choose who had more peace in their hearts, it’s easy to choose.   So as you gather this holiday with your family and gorge on that huge meal, try to really take some time to think about the person who prepared it and thank them, hug and kiss your family and friends and show them how you feel.  Make a list of the things you are grateful for, as I’m sure that list will be longer than the short list of things you think you “need”.

I’m most grateful for, in no particular order :
1) My health, including my sight, hearing, mobility, immunity, all of it.
2) My family that I love so very, very much.
3) My friends and all their nutty ways.
4) My income and having a home with a heater/AC, toilet, running water, carpet, refridgerator, washing machine.
5) My church and bible study group and the peace in my heart for coming back to God.

Of course there is so much more to this story, but I’m sure I’m lucky if you guys read down this far.  Thank you for your love,laughs and kindness over the years. I am equally guilty of keeping my gratitude pent up, but I plan on remedying that in the near future and going forward, I hope you will as well.