It takes a village...

... for us to visit villages in the Kwale district that is.

We are home from our best trip yet and we are thinking back over everything that happened and how none of it would be possible by ourselves.

Long before this trip even started, it was a group effort. Lindsay's advisor, Dr. Orsega-Smith, has been so supportive of our interest in health issues in Kenya. Dr. Orsega-Smith knew about this travel/research grant opportunity through the Institute for Global Research at the University of Delaware and encouraged Lindsay to apply for it. All through the duration of Lindsay's experience at school, in fact, studying Health Promotion at the University has given Lindsay the practical tools and skills that we needed to enhance our development work in a strategic, methodical way. Because we do everything as a team, this means that our goals here have benefited from her education and the resources that have come along with it.

Lindsay was then awarded this grant that covered all of her travel expenses, and every expense on the ground (rental car, housing, food, etc...) but it didn't cover airfare for Senya and me. Our little family has been going through some difficult financial times recently so we weren't sure what we were going to do. We mentioned this once around a few loving friends and family members and they immediately put that worry aside. They decided to help us raise the money. In a span of 2 weeks some of our very generous friends and family members had done a whirlwind of baking, cooking, pitching our cause at church, and staging fund raisers that raised enough money to cover every cent that wasn't included in the grant. Some people went way above and beyond with their generosity in time, AND money (you know who you are). All of our expenses for this whole trip were covered. Astounding.

Lindsay's parents took it upon themselves to send Senya to Africa in style and comfort. They bought her a suitcase full of cute, comfortable warm weather clothes, and an incredible supply of diapers, wipes, food, first aid stuff, sun-screen, and just about anything you can imagine a baby needing on a month long trip. We used and appreciated every single thing they sent and can't imagine what this trip would have been like without that. They also thought of lots thoughtful, practical details like a handful of small bills to tip people to help us with luggage (we had a lot... traveling for a month, carrying research supplies, delivering goods from people at home to friends and charities there... this wasn't a classic Collin and Lindsay trip with 2 backpacks).

Our friends in Kenya took fantastic care of us while we were there. Terry and Paul made us delicious vegetarian food to welcome us back. The Nicolles, who introduced us to Terry in the first place, made sure to write to us to make us feel welcome and even gave us some tips about places to get out into nature while visiting the coast. Our entire month and all of our work there wouldn't have even been possible without the constant help from people there on the ground, primarily Terry and Paul.

While we were in Kenya, our dear friends and family kept in touch with us in a number of ways. It is difficult to describe how much this means when you are living in such a different setting, but wow. It was so nice to get pictures of people we love back here enjoying the snow, phone calls just to touch base, emails to fill us in on the daily happenings, facebook messages to encourage us when things were tough, and blog comments/emails from people communicating with us about our work. Keeping in touch like this wouldn't have even been possible in the recent past (I didn't hear one thing from one person at home the first time I visited Africa) but it really works wonders to enhance your time away from home. It just ties it back in to other parts of life that mean so much to us and reminds us how interconnected the important things in life really are.

Also while we were in Kenya so many people offered to take care of stuff back here for us. Nathan came to check on the house for us and take care of Lindsay's plant. Ian stopped by to check on things for us and his help. My property managers, Chris and Lil kept things with the rentals ship-shape. Shane took care of some essential business dealings while we were gone. I actually gave him power of attorney over real estate, financial, and business transactions. It's pretty special to have a baby brother who can be trusted with things on this level. My parents did a great number of things for us. Perhaps most significantly, they adopted our beloved Zuri while we were gone and took wonderful care of her. We really wouldn't ever leave if we weren't 100% confident that she was safe and happy. They would send us frequent updates about her well being and enjoyment of things like fresh snowfall and warm fires.

When we got back to the airport in New York, my parents were waiting for us with a balloon for Senya, a cart for our luggage, and food for us. They drove us home to a house that had been fully prepped and made to feel like a home again. Nathan had cleared the driveway. Ian and Laura had cooked a huge batch of some of our favorite food. My parents had stocked the fridge with foods that we love. They had built a fire, and turned on the heat to make sure that we wouldn't freeze on our first night back from the tropics. Our dear friend Jessica had left a delicious batch of home-made cookies on the porch for us.

All of these things mean the world to us and really, that is just the beginning of it. Our friends and families love us and support us in such an incredible way. I can't imagine doing what we do without having such an amazing team of people making things possible for us at every turn.

Thank you all for everything. We love you so much. Thank you for helping to make our dreams come true.

Returning to winter

We will be leaving here tomorrow afternoon. We spent months preparing for this trip. In truth, we have arranged our entire lives around the work here to an incredible degree. It is a strange thing to have sacrificed so deeply and poured so much of ourselves into something and then leave it without any concrete plans to return.

Coming here requires a lot of time and money, both of which are scarce these days. People have been asking us when we will return and it is difficult to know how to answer. This is our fifth time here. Each time we have left without knowing the future, and each time we have found ourselves back here. I have to imagine that it will be the same way again, but without knowing the details of timing, funding, or the practicalities of our own lives, it is difficult to answer that question with any measure of confidence. "I'm sure we'll be back before long. We always come back to Kenya" is the way that I have been replying.

This month here has been busy and we have worked very hard, but it has also been exactly what our little family needed in a lot of ways. It was time that we could spend together, away from the stress and busyness that has been so present for the past several months. Sure there were stressful and confusing elements, but there was also a tremendous amount of laughter, and a great sense of accomplishment. Most importantly, it was all experienced together. It was a time to focus on a common goal. It was a time to live in the present. It was a time to talk about what we need to see in our lives when we are back at home.

So tomorrow we'll be leaving the summer time and we'll be heading back to the icy cold winter. We'll be leaving the life of being together 24/7 and we'll go back to work, school, business and the other countless things that take us in separate directions. However, we will be returning with a fresh sense of identity as a family and, hopefully, a refreshed sense of ability to tackle the challenges before us and not only survive them, but complete them with excellence.

We'll also be returning to family and friends and we know that those reunions will be filled with joy.

As far as the research and the projects here are concerned, like I said, we always come back to Kenya.

We are leaving the already established projects in the very capable hands of our partner and project manager, Terry Awendo. We will maintain consistent communication and we will be heavily involved in the facilitation of these dreams from afar. These projects are ever evolving and we look forward to that happening even while we are on a different continent. I think we'll always have one foot in both places.

In terms of the new HIV/AIDS research, we are also very excited about that. Time and funding both hold a voting seat on the board of that future, but we are confident that all of this work will not be in vain. We are optimistic that we will have a role in a brighter, healthier future for this place that we love so dearly.

More random updates

I know that at this point in the trip you may be expecting a concise wrap-up of the month's events or some conclusions about the trip here. The thing is, we have been so frantically trying to get everything finished that I feel a bit scattered. So, here are more disjointed stories from the day.

I got a terrible flat tire early this morning. I must have hit something really nasty because there was about a 3" rip in the tire. I wasn't really prepared for this type of event. Turns out my spare was flat (thanks rental car company) and I didn't have any money on me at all. Not even one shilling. I was, in fact, so unprepared that I didn't even have shoes with me. Barefoot. Broke. Broken down. I had to rely completely on the kindness of strangers to get me to a place to fill my spare and then back to put it on. An hour or so later I had bummed several rides and found some friendly guys to help me and I was back on the road.

I visited Pamoja Nursery School today to distribute the items that some kind souls from VCF sent over here with us. The students and the teachers were so grateful for the much needed supplies. Witnessing that was very special.

I spent some time with a woman from our micro-finance group today. I wanted to observe her business in action and hear a first hand account of how things are going. I sat with her as she made chapatis to sell in the village and listened to her tell her story. The small loan that she received was just enough to bump her business up a level to where she was able to buy school uniforms for her kids and send another child back to school. Also, for the first time in years, she has enough money to give them lunch when they return home for the lunch break. Her gratitude business of selling food in the village is finally covering her basic expenses. I stopped back by her shop about 8 hours later just as she was starting to sell the dinner foods that she had prepared during the day. I bought a delicious dinner of chapatis and beans in a coconut sauce complete with some sweet breads for dessert. The whole dinner for Lindsay and me together cost a total of 50 shillings (that is 62 cents).

Lindsay and Terry went out to lunch today. Lindsay wanted to thank Terry for all of her help with the study and just spend some time relaxing and talking rather than working. They had a great time together and I had the privilege of having a special little date with Senya. We went to Hollywood (one of my local favs in the busy town of Ukunda) for lunch and then went to the beach. The beach where we went has lots of giant baobab trees that grow almost up to the water's edge. Incredible. Senya was mesmerized by the beautiful water, crashing waves, and strong ocean breeze. That girl laughs and smiles a lot these days and I just adore moments like this.

I love that this restaurant is called "Hollywood."

Look at these trees!

I just love her joyful little spirit.

Tiny Senya. Giant tree.

We went to our final school for the final focus groups this evening. Turns out there was a scheduling mix up and they weren't anticipating us (this was the second week in a row at this school). They can't fit us in before we leave, so we are officially done collecting data. It was a bit of a bummer, but Lindsay has enough data for her study so it's no big deal. Also, we came here expecting this to happen a lot and we had a surprisingly low number of incidents like this. Because we have been working at a breakneck speed for so long, the realization that we were finished with the research didn't strike us until a few hours later and we both had a good laugh about the anticlimactic ending.

We leave the day after tomorrow to head home to a cold, snowy winter. It is hard to believe that our time here is almost over.

P.S. I talked to my friends at Pamoja about the matatu crash that I mentioned yesterday. 3 people died on sight and the rest of the passengers were rushed to the hospital with serious injuries. So sad.