DAY 1: Iten
The Kenyan culture is incredibly welcoming, humble, and gracious. We already feel the love and appreciation for our space here with this community and only look forward to the days ahead, learning from Kenya as much as we hope to lift her up spiritually and medically.
The US portion of our RTR Team united at Nairobi airport early Saturday morning and joined forces to fly the domestic flight from Nairobi to Eldoret on JamboJet (~1 hour flight). There we met our local driver for the week, Jeff, at Eldoret airport and loaded up van and car to make the ~90min drive to Iten. Unfortunately the drive included a side swipe car accident with one of our team cars vs. a hit and run truck. Beth, Danna, and Virginia (Athletic Trainer originally from Nairobi) were part of the chase pack trying to find the at fault driver. We learned the Kenyan community truly looks out for each other and within 15 minutes of connecting with local eyes, a witness saw the incident and provided us the license plate number of the truck.
Once we safely arrived to our lodging for the week we dropped our bags at Too Guesthouse Iten and met “Mama” Mary…host, cook, hugger. Dr. Tracy (Retired sports medicine physician, RTR Team Lead), Beth (PT), Danna (PT), and Virginia (AT) attended a coaches meeting at a local conference hotel for a Q&A to determine how we can best learn from each other and educate with our knowledge in the days to come. These coaches are at a variety of levels such as primary/secondary school running programs, development programs, elite programs under Athletics Kenya, and include male and female coaches and officials.
It was a productive meeting filled with introductions, areas of concern and ideas for us to prepare before our next education meeting later this week. The appreciation of the coaches for our travel, time, and consistency of the RTR mission trip connections is incredibly special to hear and see from this Kenyan community. God knows what he is doing when it comes to bringing us together from opposite sides of the world…speaking different languages…but very much speaking the same language.
We ended our evening back at Too Guesthouse with evening dinner by Mama Mary: vegetables, rice, beef, and a sweet potato squash “slaw”. We discussed logistics for the week and daily clinic and onsite medical care prior to ending the night with our evening Bible study. De’Ette (retired PA, married to Dr. Tracy) has prepared study with scripture, discussion, and reflection for us individually and together.
Our focused scripture for day 1: John 15. We are reminded that nothing that last is done alone and every fruit is done with Him. We are called to remain with Him through the highs and the lows, the storms and the sun, and abide by Him for fruit that will last. Ultimately, come together through Him, remain in Him, and love each other.
We will share our storms and sun each day and hold prayer requests to remain in Him …no matter the sky.
Storms: delayed flights, missed connections, lost luggage, hit and run car incident, international communication challenges with family and each other
Sun: All team members arrived healthy and are, welcomed to Kenya with open arms by each interaction, productive coaches meeting, showers, home cooked meal, sleeping horizontally!
Adventure On!