So many times have I almost hit the delete button on a folder labeled “future projects” on my computer. The images stored inside were too painful to look at. There are so many future projects in Kenya, and throughout the world at large, if one is so inclined to make a difference. On our last…
Tag: support Kenya
The Carlisle Church
You are entering the grounds of Carlisle Cathedral. A cathedral church has been on this site since 1133. Enjoy the beauty of this ancient sacred place. To say that the atmosphere around me visibly changed as I approached the entrance to the Carlisle Cathedral is as close to the truth as I can describe. I…
Vessel of Hope
June 2014 was the last time I was in the Soweto slums outside Nairobi, Kenya. It was our final day on the Vessel of Hope school project, and we all were working furiously to get things finished. We added a cement roof earlier, replacing the corrugated, rusty tin sheets, which was a major accomplishment taking…
The ancient, consecrated church graveyard.
The emptiness of the past seven days seem to be coming to a close. Day eight on Hadrian’s Wall has me seeing more villages, surface streets, even my first highway since day one. Mid-morning finds myself in the village of Eden, just as beautiful a place as the name itself implies. I’m inexplicably pulled towards…
Vallum Barn
In the year 2000, the couple decided to convert the horse stable property into a B & B to accommodate walkers, cyclists, and North Umbria countryside travelers. The result is the lovely Vallum Barn. I read about the history of this place as I’m toweling off and nursing the first injury of my walking journey,…
Day seven on the Wall – Onward to Irthington
Gray skies cover Gilsland in the morning as I walk out the front door of the Hill on the Wall B & B. I catch my reflection in one of the large windows and see a face full of thoughts about my time in Kenya. This leg of my journey will be all about reconciling…
Polaroids
We’ve all heard the stories about how some cultures believe that a photo steals a person’s soul. Whilst traveling in and around the various slums outside Nairobi, Kenya, I found quite the opposite to be true. Taking Polaroid pictures that I could watch develop in front of the eyes of the subject and then leave…
Mai Mahiu & the Great Rift
There were only four of us left on our last Sunday in Kenya, and only one that hadn’t been to see the Great Rift Valley before. We call Isaac ask if he’ll drive us out there. “No problem.” We stop to have lunch at a little Indian place, Isaac’s first time trying Indian food. He…
Karen Blixen
In 1913, Karen Blixen left her hometown in Denmark to live in what was then called “British East Africa”. Except for leaving for a brief time to recuperate from syphilis that she caught from her cheating husband of convenience, Karen worked the land trying to grow a coffee plantation. She did so with the help…
Let’s plaster, Kenyan style!
The loads of sand are shoveled off the lorry into the street outside of the Vessel of Hope school in Kenya that we are working on improving. We then bring the sand inside, bucket by bucket, where we can then mix it with water from the river and start the process of plastering classrooms so…
The Sheldrick Wildlife Trust Fund ( protect the Elephants)
You must watch…. I’ve always loved the mighty and graceful elephant, but this feeling was most certainly solidified when I first saw the African elephant in the wild of Kenya’s Maasai Mara in 2009. That was also when I first visited the Sheldrick Wildlife elephant orphanage in Nairobi. Having returned to this orphanage a few…
My butterflies
You are the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen You shine just like sunlight rays On a winter snow I just had to tell you so Your eyes sparkle as the stars Like the moon they glow Your smile could light the world on fire Or did you know ? Your mind’s full of everything…