In corporate world, I’ve heard them refer to them as ‘take-aways’. “What are you going to take away from this experience?” they ask. “What are our take-aways from this meeting?” Since I went full-swing back into work yesterday, I am prompted to apply this idea of take-aways to my reflective experience of this trip. Here, for your reading pleasure, is my ever-growing, ever-evolving list of take-aways (so far) from my trip to Kenya:
- a budding head cold
- loopy head, dizziness and weirdly vivid dreams (thank you Malarone)
- $200 worth of souvenirs and knick-knacks that seemed much cooler in the context of actually being in Kenya
- a possible fungal or ringworm infection on my head
- major gratitude for bright green luggage- there is nothing so exciting as being able to spot your luggage right off the bat on the luggage carousel after three connecting flights over international waters.
- a deeper understanding of God’s justice rather than fairness in this world of haves and have-nots.
- a true realization and personal knowing of real people that are in some of the hardest parts of the world, and the ability to pray for these people by name and picture their faces and situations specifically
- a nose that can now recognize the smell of dead wildebeests, un-flushable toilets, poverty and real ginger soda called Stoney
- two eyes that have seen hopelessness, and true hope and joy amidst this daily reality
-a deeper understanding of who I am when I’m not looking, and who I want to be
- laughter- sheer joy and laughter in the children we touched and spent time with; amazingly light laughter with new friends
- inside jokes: Ohhhhh Africa smell-track, Barry Hallelujah, finger humps, Heavenly Father, singing tv songs on the broken bus, I could go on but won’t.
- greater insight of how my own recovery in my eating disorder is on a continuum, and that I am not infallible in my recovery
- the words to ‘Hit me with a text’, the song that was always on the Kenyan hit radio station we listened to in the bus
- more distance from, and another life changing experience that I have accomplished without my ex. I can actually do, and enjoy life, without him.
- a more thorough comprehension of what one person can actually do, and how they can be the change they want to see in the world
- a relationship with God that has not necessarily grown just deeper, but wider (how appropriate that the one song we taught the kids was Deep and Wide)
- a deeper awareness of what is actually going on in the world of mission work, and what it would look like to possibly be a missionary in another country.
- surprise, appreciation and gratitude for all of the Kenyan missionaries that are working on the hearts of those in Mathare, day in and day out. No rest for the weary here.
- a better discernment of my own strength: it’s easy to say I’m strong here, and say I’ve overcome adversity. Easy because I haven’t had to beg for food, drink contaminated water, live in a black, tin shanty on the side of the road and pray for a laundry washing job so I don’t have to sell my body to provide for my kids that sleep with me at night. We say that we don’t know what we can do until we really have to do it, and these people don’t know anything different, but I firmly believe that God did not place me, in my created existence, in the slums of Mathare, because He had stronger creations that could deal with it better than I could.
-love and gratitude for the things I have in my life: from things like a home, food and water, to things like my dogs, my car, freedom and a job, a gym, friends, open space, and cookies.
-a wildebeest tooth
-the once in a lifetime chance to answer the question, “What did you do this weekend?” with, “OH, I was just on a safari in Africa, chillin’ with the lions. NBD.”
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