Friday, March 6, 2009 at 10:59AM This is Drew:
Drew is my boss at Student Life. I'm very fortunate to say my boss is also a really good friend. I don't know how it is in the rest of the professional world, but I wouldn't think that's always the case. I like to think we here in the production department have a blast, and from these pictures of Drew, you can see why. Here is our fearless leader:
Saturday, February 21, 2009 at 4:50PM Well, the trip is over and we're all back home safe and sound. It was an incredible trip capped off by a visit to the Masai Mara National Reserve for a safari. Masai Mara is the northern continuation of the Serengeti National Park and is the site of the Great Migration every year. For those of you who aren't familiar with the Great Migration, just think of that really awesome shot of all the wildebeest and zebras from Planet Earth. The safari was awesome, we saw 4 of the big 5... lions, black rhinos, elephants, and buffalo... those leopards were stubborn and wouldn't come out. Here are just a few pics from the trip:
Sunday, February 15, 2009 at 4:23PM This was our last full day in Nairobi. Long and short of it, we went to Church, we ate lunch, and we visited a college in downtown Nairobi where a lot of LDP students attend. It was a great day.
I could write a book on our Church experience, but I won't... I'll just say it was loud, long, and hot.
After the poverty we've been exposed to for the past 3 days, it was a nice change of pace to just have a day to spend with the LDP students. It occured to me that I talk quite a bit about LDP students, but I've never explained it. LDP stands for Leadership Development Program. Once a child goes all the way through the program and graduates high school, they are eligible to apply to the LDP program. It is another sponsorship based program in which the students will now be sponsored through college. It is highly sought out by Compassion high school grads, and not easy to be accepted into the program. These are the best of the best and are some of the smartest people I've ever met.
These students are proof Compassion works and their children will not know poverty.
[caption id="attachment_37" align="alignnone" width="580" caption="Jennifer Gitiri"]
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Diana Aluso
Ibrahim Olaiseh (photo by Drew Francis)
Faith Njeri
Hezron Aidi Saturday, February 14, 2009 at 11:40PM Today I got to meet one of mine and my wife's Compassion Sponsored children. His mane is Brian, he's seven years old and lives in the slums of Mathare Valley, the second largest slum in all of Africa.
I have to say, I was pretty nervous about meeting him. Being so young, there's a really good chance that I'll just scare him more than anything else. Turned out to be one of the most incredible experiences of my life. I will honestly never forget it. He's funny, confident, and extremely bright. He wasn't supposed to know any English yet but he understood me a lot and communicated very well. I even taught him how to take a picture:
We visited his home with a couple LDP students (these are Compassion sponsored kids who have graduated from thr program and gone to college with the aid of an LDP sponsorship.) Jennifer, who is now a lawyer, began to talk to Brian and his mother about what Compassion was about to do to their lives and their family. There was something quite amazing to watch living proof of how Compassion works explain to the child I am know sponsering that his life will never be the same again. It was an emotional moment for me, I am confident his children will not know poverty, the cycle ends, just as it did for Jennifer.
The Mathare Valley region was not an easy one to take. Just the shear size of it is overwhelming.
Friday, February 13, 2009 at 9:33PM I worked so hard last night to get pictures up from our trip to the Maasai Tribe yesterday, but I lost my internet connection and fell asleep. This will be brief due to the fact it is now morning and I need to get ready for another busy day.
Visiting the Maasai Tribe was one of the days I was looking forward to the most on this trip. They're what I thought all of Africa was like when I was a kid. It's like National Geographic Africa.
We drove 2.5 hours out in the middle of nowhere, then turned on this dirt road and went another good ways out to the middle of nowhere (agian), and there it was, another Compassion Project. The Maasai's where awesome, there seemed to be about 1000 children (it was probably more like 250) and they were all so excited to see us. There was so much involved in the day, I can't begin to dive into it right now, maybe in a summury post at the end of the trip, but here are some of my favorite pictures from today:
