days 1 - 4.5

we are back!!! so very grateful for traveling mercies and more memories added to my mind's collection called kenya : )

i just have to say this -- i decided very last minute to try business class 😳😳😳 long story and dang, wrestling with the dang gullt 🤪 and i ended up saying YES! oh my. now i understand 😜 i felt so out of place and LOVING IT ❤️ bring on the boujee 🥹 i counted up the number of international trip i have done -- 16. seven adoption and nine for missions. the majority involved a 13 hour flight.... coach in economy, you take a back seat (get it 😝)

stephen was waiting in nairobi and his hug felt sooo good! it was afternoon by then and we went to hotel and chilled -- worked out, massage, steam room to help this old body adjust. we had dinner and lydia and i watched a rom-com ❤️ and stayed awake in spite of the two days of little sleep. 

on friday, stephen came and we had slow breakfast and coffee and just talked. he is a man who enjoys deep and meaningful conversations so he can handle lydia and me 🫣 and truly love it like we do 😁.

we went shopping for all things coffee ☕️! we are training the girls (okay, lydia is training and i am taste tester 😉) in barista skills. we eventually found a NICE commercial grade espresso machine. yay! it is beautiful. and then we bought coffee beans, syrups, and accessories. coffee shops are woefully lacking in the parts if kisii we visit, and we are about to change that... we are also opening a small coffee shop at the community center in homabay... yay!

friday night, we hung out at stephen's apartment with vane, ariaro, ombija, and soldier. it was a really sweet time. stephen has invested an extreme amount of time and energy in both kisii and homabay. God orchestrated an incredible amount of detail to bring us together. i am forever humbled in how He weaves lives together. i look back over my life and see His hand all over it. Father, there is no one or nothing that compares to YOU! we got back to hotel in possibly the hardest rain i have ever experienced. rainy season is no joke.

and saturday, we head to kisii!!! a couple of times, we drove to kisii straight from nairobi airport... now, we got smarter 😊 your body needs a recovery day in between. nine hours later, we safely arrived. we stopped per tradition at safari coffee shop in narok (the halfway point). i ❤️ tradition. crazy enough, we stopped to pee in middle of nowhere to ask to use someone's squatty potty and meet a gentleman named chris. he comes out from a business shed just to introduce himself. i swear kenyans are friendlinest people on the planet. he asks where we are from, and i tell him the usa, in the state of indiana... he goes, "oh, i spoke at depauw in greencastle many years ago." what in the world? he also presented on cultural studies at tufts and harvard. this guy was dressed in traditional massai mara and adheres to ancient tribal customs. it's a small world 🌎, yes it is.