Christina's Adventures in Africa: June 2013

The word for goodbye in Swahili is “Kwaheri.” It has taken me a long time to sit down to write my farewell blog and I was wondering why it was so difficult for me. I spent two years of my life carrying water, eating amongst my village neighbors, walking long distances, assisting in delivering babies, taking motorcycles out in the bush for outreach clinics, battling black mambas and cockroaches, learning Swahili and my tribal language, singing and dancing with the little boys who were always tapping on my window, and meeting some of the best friends I may ever find. I don’t think two years of experiences, tears and triumphs can be summed up in a blog. More importantly, I think this blog was so hard to write because I’m not ready to say goodbye. “Tutaonana” means until we see each other again and that seems like a more appropriate way for me to part with the land and people that will always mean so much to me.

For those of you that followed my story, you may already know that I was pick-pocketed in Nairobi in January, had my hotel room broken into in February in Kisii losing all my electronics, followed by a break-in at my village home in March where I lost a second computer. It was a trying time for me and it ultimately lead to Peace Corps deeming my site unsafe and sending me home a few months early. I had 24 hours to return to my village, pack all my belongings, and say all of my goodbyes. It would have been difficult to leave when it was time, but it was heartbreaking to try and tell everyone what knowing them has meant to me over the past two years in a matter of hours.

I struggled and cried, had the time of my life and saw amazing things that most people only dream of. I have been on horseback riding next to giraffes and rare zebras, I have summited Mount Kenya at 16,355ft, I have swam in Lake Victoria and sunbathed on the shores of the Indian Ocean, I have sat in traffic for hours in Nairobi, waved to people on a sunrise run through my beautiful village, experienced the joys of delivering babies and the pride in resuscitating one, and never thought my best friend would be a Nun. I am a better and stronger person for everything I have gone through.

I was and will not be ready to say goodbye. Kenya is a part of me and the people in my village will always be with me. Tutaonana Kenya.