Last week, we had an incredible experience in Nairobi, Kenya, for our midpoint debrief.
The busride there went a lot more smoothly than our initial busride–so much so that we even made it there early and on our first day we were able to go to a Nairobi mall! I cannot even recall how many tears of joy I shed that day at the sight of so many clothes, and so much ice cream and American candy. We also discovered a legitimate supermarket, complete with Cinnamon Toast Crunch, Oreos, and Nature Valley Bars.
The next day in Nairobi, we went to Java House–a restaurant that we had heard so many glorious stories about. Trust me, it lived up to our expectations. Over the course of the week, we tried everything on the menu–including chocolate chip cookie milkshakes, caesar salads, chicken pesto paninis, tomato soup, and carrot cake. Definitely the break we needed from rice and beans.
I was so encouraged to be surrounded by the amazing girls of the Expeditions and Kenya teams. We swapped stories, poured into each other, and had some real, genuine worship together.
On our last day in Kenya, we went to an elephant orphanage, which had the cutest little baby elephants in the world. Then, I got to experience my first African market where I became a champion at bargaining with the (very stubborn) locals.
Between the amazing food at Java and the encouragement from the AIM staff and other teams, midpoint debrief provided exactly the refreshment that our spirits needed to finish out the second half of the trip strong and get as much out of our remaining six weeks as possible.
As great of a time as we had in Kenya, we certainly missed the staff at Alpha, the food at Alpha, and all of the warm hospitality of Lira, Uganda. Because of how much we anticipated our return, we were given an appreciation lesson as we realized that we wouldn't trade Lira for all of the chicken pesto paninis and chocolate chip cookie milkshakes in the world.
